Recordings of April 2020 Remote Learning Training
We’ve collected links here to recordings of the trainings we offered in preparation for remote learning in spring and summer. Some videos required passwords (as noted).
- Building Community in a Remote Learning Setting (Jon Ostenson)
- Assessment and Remote Learning (Jon Balzotti)
- Using Zoom for Online Paper Conferences (Mary Lynn Cutler) [password: 8I!498v!]
- Sharing Resources and Best Practices (Amy Williams) [password: SpringTraining#4]
- Instructor Meeting on Remote Teaching and Learning (various)
Recordings of June 2020 Training
We offered a short, informal training meeting for Summer 2020 writing instructors. Recordings and materials are here.
- Recording of the main meeting and Q&A (password: 9e@#H49F)
- Sample syllabi: [LS Syllabus 1] [Syllabus 2] [LS Syllabus 3] [LS Syllabus 4]
- Jonathan Garcia’s Presentation on Building Community and Best Communication: He covers some really good ground here, especially about using online discussions and course organization; here’s a copy of the handout he references in the video.
- Jessica Green’s video on incorporating the library instruction days: And here are instructions for setting up the library instruction training in Learning Suite and in Canvas.
Other Resources
How to Be A Better Online Teacher
The ten essential principles and practices at the end of this article are a good summary of best practices for online instruction.
Emergency Online Teaching Resources
This site is another collection of best practices across a wide range of tools and settings. In fact, many of the materials on this site have been created especially for the COVID-19 situation so they’re particularly timely.
Online Writing Teacher
This searchable blog by Scott Warnock, guru of online writing instruction, contains lots of information about teaching writing online. He has great ideas for creating both temporary online writing course and for designing permanent online writing courses.
Preventing Zoombombing [article 1] [article 2]
If you’re not worried about trolls “zoombombing” your Zoom classes, you probably should be. These two articles explain what hackers do and how to prevent this problem.
How to Recover the Joy of Teaching After an Online Pivot
Reminds us how to stay sane and healthy while doing something that isn’t natural or the ideal for us.
Building Community and Relationships in Online Settings [article 1] [article 2]
One of the challenges we’ll face in teaching a full term or semester online is that we don’t have the advantage of face-to-face interactions that help us build a sense of community with our class and with students. These articles offer important tips for addressing this challenge.
Grading Online Discussions
This site features rubrics for online discussions. These can help you and students clarify expectations for this practice and strengthen their effects.
Nature of Writing
Loads of online modules that would make nice asynchronous assignments and activities to embed into your writing class.
Pedagogical Practices
This site has general pedagogical practices for online teaching, including practical tips for setting up a welcome message, a syllabus quiz, and using one-minute papers to gauge participation.
This blog post from Wake Forest University offers three good strategies for teaching writing online during the pandemic, but the ideas are good enough to keep even when we return to face-to-face teaching.
NCTE Position Statement on Online Writing Instruction
Contains some research-based principles for online instruction as well as instructional examples of those principles in practice.
The Online Writing Instruction Community
An online, academic resource that provides a sense of community for online writing instructors around the globe and that encourages the use of recent online writing instruction (OWI) scholarship, the sharing of assignments, feedback, and course design ideas.
Tips for Student Success in Online Classes
While there are many of these lists on the Internet, this one strikes us as particularly succinct and comprehensive. Sharing and discussing a list like this early in the semester can be key to helping students transition to this format and have a positive experience. You might also share with students to Google Chrome browser extensions that can help them stay focused: Block Site and StayFocused.
