It is important to help students settle into the rhythm of the semester. One way to do this is to nudge those who have missed assignments. You can easily contact students in Canvas who have missed a specific assignment using the Message Students Who function. This Canvas Guide explains how to quickly send these messages… Read more »
If you’ll be teaching an online synchronous class this summer, think about how you could use your Zoom background as an icebreaker and way to build community. For example, you could set your background to a photo related to your research or to the class. Then you can start the class chatting with students about… Read more »
As we’ve learned this past year, building community is an important part of an online course. An aspect of building community is projecting care and support. A quick way to do this is to build in opportunities for students to have deadline extensions without having to ask you permission for them. Build in “oops tokens”… Read more »
Need a quick ice breaker for your summer class? Consider using images to which students can relate. Create a PowerPoint slide showing six different images, with a mixture of happier and darker pictures. Ask your students, “which picture best exemplifies how your weekend went?” Or “What picture best exemplifies how you feel about the upcoming… Read more »
Part 5. Recordings of Class Sessions and Course Content One aspect of online learning appreciated by many students is the recorded lectures created by instructors and posted to Canvas. When returning to in-person teaching, instructors may want to continue to provide some recorded lectures rather than using valuable class time to lecture on the material…. Read more »
Part 4. Breakout Rooms for Collaborative Learning During the pandemic, instructors teaching in Zoom have learned to take advantage of its “breakout room” feature to encourage student engagement and collaborative learning. After the return to in-person teaching, some classes may remain hybrid, with face-to-face and virtual students in the same classroom simultaneously. Group work in… Read more »