Tips from Puget Sound Faculty

On Communication

• I've been in constant communication with  my students and they have told me they greatly appreciate it. Even though testing (I gave 2 tests remotely on Friday) isn't secure, I've been convinced that they still need to study to organize notes and make analytical connections successfully.  Giving up a little control here isn't disastrous for student learning or fairness.
• Communicate often, and then communicate some more.
• ...folks need to think about what communication immediacy behaviors they would employ face-to-face (e.g., come to class early, greet your students warmly and individually as they arrive, make sure the outline/plan/structure of the class session is clear (UBER emphasis in the on-line environment), maybe even have a practice class session with the students . . . and be willing to learn from them (they were giving us hints in our maiden voyage on Tuesday :).

On netiquette

• Telling students to mute mics when they have background noise in their area has helped. Discussions that lower expectations for online class sessions and which contextualize it as a stop-gap measure but not a real substitute for face-to-face learning have also helped.
• I have a good amount of experience with remote instruction from a previous institution, and particularly find tips for designing discussion forums to be helpful. For example, the instructor can assign students to different roles (presenter, audience, fact checker, peer evaluator, etc.) for a discussion and rotate those roles on a weekly basis.
• In the public chat, students write Q if they have a question and A if they want to respond to my question. Except for the fact that I'm forced to navigate back to the public chat from the shared notes, that system works pretty well.
• Ask students to mute themselves when lecturing and type questions.

SOME SAMPLE TEXT FOR STUDENTS

1. Canvas Conference classes
   • I will continue to keep attendance as I do in class. As best as you can, please be on time for our remote sessions this week, though I understand tech issues are inevitable.
   • Once you log on to our remote conference on Canvas, please put yourself on audio mute right away. Please remain on mute unless you are speaking, presenting, asking a question, etc. This will help with background noise, which is a little more of an issue on Canvas than Google.
   • If you have a question during our conference class, please either type it into the Chat box, or type “Hand” into the Chat box. I will have the Chat open constantly, so I can monitor who has a question, who would like to speak, etc.
   • If you arrive late to our Conference, or get cut off and have to log back in, there is no need to announce your arrival—please do go ahead with putting yourself on mute and resume as normal.
   • Unfortunately, we won’t have the same kinds of empathy-feedback loops that we do in person, so I’ll do my best to wait until speakers are finished before chiming in. That should go for everyone. It’ll feel artificial for sure, but hopefully we can achieve some sort of comfort in the coming weeks! 
2. My office hours
   • My office hours will remain as they are on our syllabus: T/Th at 3:30pm and W at 11am. I will use Google Hangout Chat to host office hours.
   • You should have all received invitations to join my Chat Room. If you would like to “attend” my office hours, log in during the times listed above, introduce yourself, and let me know that you would like to speak with me. I will then invite you to a separate, individual video Hangout.
   • I will only be checking this Chat Room during my office hours, so please know that I won’t receive messages until my office hours (times listed above and in our course syllabus). IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that you must access Canvas, the Google Suite, and all correspondence with me using your pugetsound.edu email address. I won’t be able to grant access to non UPS email addresses, due to the nature of licenses and FERPA privacy that we have with Canvas and Google softwares.

On Meeting Students Where They Are

• The whole idea of synchronous vs. asynchronous blew my mind.  The tip that students will be highly stressed out and may not be available during class time seems important to remember.
• To notch-it down.  Virtual is a different beast.  Remember, it's hard for students too - they're trying to learn without being able to see you (fuzzy) or their peers.  None of us learned to be good or great teachers over one weekend; we can't expect to master this in a few days, much less excel at it.
• Don't expect to be great at this...we are newbies in this medium! Remember that virtual teams work best when they've met face to face--and we've had 7 weeks of face to face. We have a good base! Use the breakout rooms to facilitate discussion between students.
• I've been using Canvas Conferences and have made much more use of asking students to register an opinion in Shared Notes and then calling on individuals to talk about what they wrote.  Before exiting the session, I copy and paste the notes into a Word document and use these to help me figure out what and how students are understanding.
• I asked students to list in the Shared Notes suggestions for making this work better and what they need to keep them engaged and interested.  I haven't had time to work with their suggestions, but in the short term the activity created a greater sense that we are in this together. 

On Making the Transition Online as Teachers

• My favorite so far: https://anygoodthing.com/2020/03/12/please-do-a-bad-job-of-putting-your-courses-online/  (The title does not capture the nuanced argument in the article; which has very helpful advice about scaling back and managing expectations and stress)
• Test drive everything in advance, with peers or other guinea pigs to see what the student experience is like. With Google Meet, use your computer as primary and also log in with your cell phone so you can verify what students are seeing when you are presenting (unless there's a better way!). Disregard Google Meet app- doesn't work unless you also use Google Calendar (which UPS isn't connected with)- instead, just use the browser on your phone if you have to use a phone vs a computer. And you can Google help with just about any help issue you may encounter. If recording a presentation (regardless of method), do a 20-second trial recording to ensure sound and audio settings are correct. Frequently check for updates on computer and software, hours in advance of needing it live. (I try to do this at least weekly if not daily now and it's averted many disasters).  Being introduced to Google Meet has been a pleasant surprise and very helpful. Other tools I've used that I find helpful: Snagit (Techsmith), hypothes.is (for annotating websites as an instructor or group), Screencastify or Camtasia.
• It's ok to not be perfect. Your virtual class is not going to be the same as an in-person class. Prioritize important topics and tasks. Consider that your students will be in different time zones, have access to varying quality of internet access, and have distractions that they do not have at school (quiet areas to connect remotely, distractions from family, caring for family that become sick, etc.). 

On Cheating

• Cheating and the temptation to cheat are rampant (students have shared some social media posts with me). Decrease their desire to cheat by decreasing the importance of tests (or doing away with them). Re-think my assignments and weighting.