In the event of a disruption to normal operations at Merrimack College, including classroom instruction, we have put together a plan for our instructors below to ensure learning can continue.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Remote Learning for Students
By preparing for a disruption to your typical face-to-face classroom sessions, you can still maintain some basic continuity of education. Explore the information in this guide to use online communication technologies, organize your course materials for student access, and consider alternative activities for instruction. It’s important to remember you are not expected to become an expert on best practices for virtual learning. That’s not the situation we’re in. We’re in triage. Virtual learning, when planned, can be really excellent.
The good news is that every instructor’s class has a Blackboard shell created. Start there and log in with your Merrimack credentials. If you are currently using Google Classroom, start there. Consider the following questions when determining your own planning needs. How will you communicate with your students? Will you need to share content with your students? If so, what will you need to provide? How will you distribute readings or other documents? How will you make a lecture available? Will you need to interact with your students in real time? If so, how will that happen? How will students submit any assignments that are due? What activities happen in typical class sessions and what do students need to accomplish? Once you’ve dealt with those things, the focus is on communication.
In the face of all this uncertainty, you need to explain as clearly as you can and in a variety of places (Gmail, Blackboard, MyMack, Google Classroom) what students can expect about the course in the next few weeks. Be sure to cover what students are responsible for doing, how they can find the things they need to meet those responsibilities, and what they should do first. Make sure the lines of communication are two way, when possible. When in doubt, offer more ways to get in touch with you.
Some courses have essential components that may be challenging to replicate in an online environment. For example, many science courses have lab sections in which students learn to conduct experimental procedures using specialized materials or sophisticated instrumentation. Theatre or visual arts courses often have essential studio components that may not translate well online. And many courses require students to engage in community-based field work in specialized settings. In these cases, faculty should think creatively with their disciplinary colleagues whether elements of these activities can be adapted under the circumstances, alternative activities could be offered using virtual tools, or certain activities could be postponed until the campus returns to standard operation.
Our instructional designers are available to assist you in a variety of ways, including setting up gradebooks in Blackboard Ultra, demoing new features and workflows, and addressing any needs or challenges you may be experiencing.
Go to Open Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 2-4 p.m.
The CETL, IT, McQuade Library, the Academic Success Center and committed faculty have partnered to create an expanded full-support team. All calls and emails will be routed through the Help Desk to the appropriate department.
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Every instructional course at Merrimack College has an automatically created Blackboard Ultra shell that is linked to enrollments. Faculty can utilize the tools in Blackboard to post lecture notes, presentations, links to library resources and external web resources. Folders and documents in Blackboard can deliver static content while assignments and quizzes can be set up to conduct assessments online. Respondus Lockdown browser allows external monitoring of your exams/quizzes. Blackboard modules can be used to pull it all together to organize content for the students in an easy-to-follow format.
Hold a live discussion or deliver a lecture during a synchronous class meeting using Blackboard Collaborate, the college’s web conferencing platform. Collaborate is integrated into Blackboard and works on either a computer or mobile device. Collaborate allows you to interact with your students in a virtual space where you can share your screen to show documents, slides or web pages to your students. If some students are unable to join your online meeting, you can record your Collaborate session and it will be available to all students within your Blackboard course or you can send an email link to them.
Post discussion questions or prompts, and ask students to respond to them within a set timeframe. Blackboard discussion boards are an excellent option for hosting your class discussion. Students can upload documents, images, and videos to discussion boards. Discussion boards can be graded or not through the gradebook feature.
We’ve put together a list of common questions and answers you may have about remote teaching and learning, recording audio and video, engaging students, remote technologies and more.
Visit Frequently Asked Questions
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Many faculty ask us how they can gauge a student’s learning in an online course. They often wonder what could possibly replace the traditional lectures or methods that have worked so well in a face-to-face classroom setting. Luckily, there are myriad opportunities for alternative forms of activities and assessment in an online or hybrid course.
| Assessment Type | Description and Uses | Tool(s) |
| Quiz |
Description: Auto-graded questions including multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, formula, file upload or short essay (needs manual grading). It can be timed/untimed, randomized, one or more attempts by students Use Cases: Self-knowledge check, formative assessment, reduced grading effort |
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| Assignment |
Description: Regular assignment where students submit answers/papers in Word document, PDF, or other files by uploading to Blackboard. Use Cases: Apply concepts, formative assessment, summative assessment |
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| Whole-Class Discussion |
Description: An asynchronous class-wide discussion that begins with prompts by the faculty; students post responses to prompt and reply to one another Use Cases: For small class sizes; apply and clarify concepts, build faculty presence, build community, formative/summative assessment |
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| Small-Group Discussion |
Description: An asynchronous discussion that happens in small groups; begins with prompts by the faculty; student post responses to prompts and reply to one another in the group Use Cases: For medium-large class sizes; apply and clarify concepts, build faculty presence, build community, formative/summative assessment |
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| Individual Project |
Description: A larger assignment where students need to apply, analyze, evaluate or create works in different stages in order to demonstrate their learning Use Cases: Summative assessments |
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| Group Project |
Description: A larger assignment where students work in groups to apply, analyze, evaluate or create works in different stages in order to demonstrate their learning. Use Cases: Community building; summative assessment; reduced grading effort for large classes |
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| Case Study |
Description: Students are presented with realistic problems faced by professionals in the real world and are typically provided with a variety of documents outlining a specific problem or situations, and required to formulate a plan of action addressing the issue Use Cases: Real-world application; authentic assessment; formative/summative assessment |
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| Debate |
Description: Students assigned to teams to research and analyze a controversial topic based on a stance which will lead to a series of online presentation of statements and arguments by the two opposing teams Use Cases: Real-world application; authentic assessment; community building; formative/summative assessment |
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| Role Play |
Description: Students are assigned to act out an imaginary scenario that closely mirrors a situation that could occur in a real-world environment Use Cases: Real-world application; authentic assessment; community building; formative/summative assessment |
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Video (Direct to the camera) |
Use Cases: Course/module overview, concept/content demonstration, promote faculty presence |
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| Video (Screencast) |
Description: Videos where the faculty narrates while showing the screen by using a whiteboard or showing website/tools/visuals Use Cases: Detailed concept demonstration |
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| Video (Interview or guest speaker) |
Description: Videos in which the faculty member interviews (or invites) an expert in his or her field on topics related to the course Use Cases: Build faculty presence; bring in external expertise |
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| Video (Third party |
Description: Videos curated from publishers or public websites, and embedded or linked in the course. Use Cases: Bring in existing professional resources; reduced production effort |
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| Infographic |
Description: A custom graphic that is created specifically to illustrate a course topic or clarify a course concept Use Cases: Visualized concept demonstration |
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| Group Synchronous Sessions |
Description: A real-time learning session where student groups
and faculty collaborate in a live online learning space Use Cases: Build community and faculty presence; moderate group work; clarify concepts/assignments |
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| Individual Synchronous Session |
Description: A real-time learning session where an individual student Use Cases: Build faculty presence; clarify concepts/assignments; office hours |
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