CTIDE - Teaching in Multiple Modalities

In designing your course, you’ll create a number of modules—the exact number will vary depending on what term or semester you are teaching in. Each module has learning outcomes that set a path for students’ learning, and assignments within the module assess these outcomes. Typically, each module represents a week of course time in which students can complete work within that time frame. 

Please note that the following guidelines are best practices. You can adapt your design however you see fit, but the guidelines are intended to create a structure that supports clear organization and student learning.

Start Here Folder

• Begin by creating a Welcome Video in the Start Here Folder, introducing students to the class and what to expect.  During this introduction, it is an opportunity to create relevancy and excitement about the course and its content. 
• Create an “Introduce Yourself Here” discussion board where students can get to know each other. Sample prompts:
  • Please take a moment to introduce yourself here. It will help me customize your course experience & assist you in your assignments. You can respond directly to this discussion post, video introductions preferred. Please include the following points in your post:
    • name
    • work experience 
    • fun fact
    • And, [something relevant to your course]

• Class Cafe: All courses have a class cafe, this is similar to a water cooler or general questions discussion board. A place for students to ask questions and help answer them too.
• Supplementary Resources: Place all course-wide resources here. This could be style guides, links out to tutoring/writing centers, etc.

Syllabus

• Upload your syllabus in the left-hand navigation area of the course. It makes it quick and easy for students to find. Be sure after you upload it, choose “link options” and then check off the following two boxes: “Preview Inline” and “Expand Preview by Default”. When a student clicks on your syllabus it will automatically open up, with an option to download.

Modules

Modules should consist of the following items:

• Learning Objectives and To Do List: This should give students a good idea about what they will learn by the end of the module. It can consist of a paragraph-length explanation, or a series of bullet points listing outcomes and objectives.
• Content:
  • Asynchronous short lectures (fewer than 10 minutes): You can use Zoom or Panopto – and the Merrimack Teaching Studio – to record short lectures that can be embedded within each module. These lectures can be used to offer an overview of module content or explain a difficult concept. Chunking content is best.
  • Readings: For fall/spring courses and winter session courses, each module should contain between 75-100 pages of reading (articles, case studies, etc.). For pre-college, readings, assessments, and other activities should add up to 15 hours of work a week. The amount of reading assigned will depend on the difficulty of the readings. Feel free to also consider using videos, podcasts, or other materials.
  • 1-2 assignments: These can be short formative check-ins or longer higher-stakes case studies, short papers, group projects, etc. Or the assignment can be a component of a larger final project, such as a milestone. Assignments should be due at the end of the module week.
  • 1 + Discussion(s): Each module should contain one discussion that connects to the assignments and readings. The initial discussion post should be due midweek, and follow-up posts to peers at the end of the week. Remember, in Canvas you have the option to choose “post first”. This requires students to post before they can see others’ responses.
• Wrap-Up and Looking Ahead: This helps tie in one module to the next. It is a recap of what was learned in this module and how it connects to the learning in the next.

Now that you have designed your course, what comes next? Facilitating and teaching it! Throughout your course, you can note what worked well and what needs improvement to inform design in the next course iteration.

Create a Facilitation Plan

Consider the various course facilitation activities you’ll need to do each week and how they can best fit into your schedule. Set up a weekly rhythm and approach that works. To provide structure, it can be helpful to plan your classes, or modules, in segments. For example, segments might include:

• A review activity that connects to students’ prior knowledge
• A lecture or presentation on the day/module’s material
• An application or meaning-making activity that students engage in to deepen their learning
• A formative assessment to gauge students’ understanding of the material
• A reflection and debrief on the lesson or module. 

Keeping a structure like this helps your planning and maintains a consistent routine for students. Also strive to be consistent in both the approach and timing of communications to students, discussion involvement, grading, and feedback.

Establish and Maintain Teacher Presence

The instructor’s presence refers to how psychologically connected students feel to their instructors, and it’s correlated with a number of beneficial outcomes such as enhanced learning (Chesebro & McCroskey, 2001), motivation (Baker, 2010) and student attendance and participation (Rocca, 2004). Below are a number of suggestions that can enhance presence and immediacy in your course.

• Remain visible. Log into Canvas to review student work, note themes in their understanding and areas in need of revision, maintain a presence in the discussion board, and use announcements to communicate important information and ideas. 
• Humanize with video, audio, and images. Starting your course with a personal video introduction or sharing some photos can help students connect with you.
• Be responsive. Let students know how long after they email you they can expect to get a response. If you have students ask questions through discussion boards, set aside time to monitor them and provide responses. 
• Office Hours/1:1 meetings. Post “office hours” on the Homepage so students may request an appointment. You could also host live help/Q&A sessions using Zoom or InSpace for the whole class. Online office hours can help connect students with each other and with you, especially when planned in advance. 

Allow for Interaction

• Build in opportunities for students to collaborate and socialize. Students’ thinking and understanding is extended through discussion with peers. It can be incredibly helpful for students to hear how someone closer to their knowledge level makes sense of the material or approaches problems.
• Set up respectful class and discussion norms. Class norms and discussion guidelines can help to mitigate potential conflicts that can arise when discussing controversial topics. Consider involving students in the creation of class norms, asking them to first list, either individually or in small groups, what behaviors demonstrate and facilitate a respectful learning environment and which types of behaviors detract from it. From there, a final list can be decided on and endorsed by the entire class. You can then remind students of these guidelines before discussions or class segments that might be contentious.

Facilitating a Synchronous Meeting

In a synchronous session, you will conduct the session at a pre-specified date and time, using an online meeting tool such as Zoom or InSpace. One benefit of synchronous sessions is that all participants are online together at the same time, which may increase a feeling of presence, immediacy, and community in your online classroom. However, synchronous sessions require scheduling in advance. Plan to be as inclusive as possible of student schedules, e.g., poll students for their availability and schedule sessions based on that data. Many students take online courses because of the flexibility and convenience, and we should alert them early if the course requires them to meet at a predetermined time.

Before the Session

• Prepare an instructional lesson plan or outline/agenda for each synchronous class session.
  • Strategies for Effective Lesson Planning from the University of Michigan.
  • HyFlex Sample Lesson from Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies
• Establish a general class structure and format — how you want to facilitate your classroom (i.e., asking questions, use of camera, online netiquette, and technical issues).
• Do a ‘practice run’.
• Upload resources used in the session to Canvas or Google Drive ahead of time. This will save time in class and allow students to prepare for class, including accessing resources.
• For individual, peer or small group activities, display clear directions (i.e., on slide, whiteboard, Google doc) as to what you want students to do 

During the Session

• Start with IceBreakers and Introductions.
• Explain the agenda and approximate time of the meeting.
• Use polling to check in on how students are doing. You could use Socrative, Poll Everywhere, Kahoot, or Google Forms.
• Back Channels offer a collaborative way to engage students.It is a digital conversation that runs concurrently with a synchronous activity (e.g., lecture,
  presentation, demonstration, whole class activity), providing students with a space to actively contribute to the discussion and ask questions
  • Using a Backchannel in Synchronous Class Sessions 
  • Back Channels (from Jose Bowen’s Teaching Naked).
• Small group collaboration. Set groups up in advance or create them on the fly in Zoom or InSpace. Be sure to set up rules and guidelines. Ask students to reintroduce themselves and determine who will be the reporter (back to the whole group). 

After the Session

• Let students know when and where the recording is available in Canvas.
• Add the presentation to Canvas.
• Remind students to complete the follow-up activities.

Before Your Course Begins

It will benefit you to think through grading considerations before the semester so that you can anticipate the critical feedback points for students, how to support their success on assignments, and how to manage your grading workload and schedule.

Prior to creating any assignments, discussions, or quizzes in Canvas, we recommend thinking through the following questions? 

• How do you usually approach grades? How has this approach worked in the past? Do you feel that the grades accurately reflect students’ mastery of the material, or might adjustments need to be made?
• Are all assignments of equal weight or do you have different components or sets of assignments worth different percentages? How do these weights relate to the importance of the learning outcomes?
• How flexible do you want to be in allowing students multiple attempts at an assignment or submitting late work? What is the rationale for your decision, and what might some implications be of your policies?
• Do you offer multiple ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge, in line with the principles of Universal Design for Learning?
• How can you provide transparency in the feedback and grading process to students? If using a rubric, what criteria and performance levels do you need to outline on it to support your assignment objectives?
• How do due dates align with your schedule and your ability to give timely feedback? How much time will you need to provide students with meaningful feedback that they can apply to the next assignment before it is due?

Effective Feedback and Grading Practices

• Communicate your grading policies—generally, these policies should be in the first module of the course. Try to make them clear and explicit.
• For each assignment, provide instructions and criteria on how students will be assessed. It is also helpful to explain what learning outcomes the students will be developing or meeting by working on the assignment.
• Set students up to succeed by providing exemplars, models, assignment checklists, or rubrics.
• Give opportunities for students to reflect on their learning and performance on assignments.
• If possible, provide feedback on both the assignment and the process. How might students improve not only their work but the approaches and strategies they use to undertake it?
• Prompt students to apply and integrate feedback on future assignments.
• Use the Announcements feature in Canvas to provide guidance, advice, and further instruction to the whole class. If you see common errors—or strengths—after reviewing student work, use these tools to communicate whole class feedback, addressing the highest prioritized and most frequent misconceptions or points in need of further discussion. 

Canvas

• Check out the CTIDE Canvas resource page
• Know that students are automatically added to your course two weeks before the semester start date
• Watch some short Canvas videos on setting up your course
• Create, collect, and grade assignments
• Develop quizzes, exams, and use question banks
• Create engaging discussions(audio, video, images, and text)
• Learn more in the Canvas Instructor Guide
• Publisher integrations (Contact CTIDE)

Zoom or Panopto

• Zoom
• Class lectures, mini-lectures and meetings
• Create and edit captions with Panopto
• Live video/audio class discussions with chat capabilities
• Demonstrations, whiteboard, and polling features
• Screen sharing
• Presentations
• Break out rooms
• Office hours and advising

Mobile Technology, including iPad and Smartphone

• Airplay (all classrooms have Apple TV)
• Airdrop documents (while in class)
• Work offline using DropBox, Google Drive or other applications
• Integrated note-taking (Notes, Notability, Powerpoint, Keynote, Microsoft Office)
• Download free software on MyMack (Hub requires creating an additional username/password)
• Anytime, anywhere device accessibility
• Connect with Zoom or Panopto
• Precise annotations
• Robust whiteboarding (Explain Everything, Jamboard)