Supporting New Remote Teachers

dejonghed07
Community Champion

How do you shorten the learning curve for emergency remote teachers?

With all teachers at our institution now involved in emergency remote instruction due to the pandemic, I've been outlining our recommendations for using Canvas with students. We've been providing online faculty with a checklist for facilitation. Chunking it up into the categories of Communication, Engagement and Feedback/Grading seems to make it more user-friendly for those who quickly move face-to-face courses into Canvas for remote delivery. Here is what I came up with - let me know if you have additional ideas to support those new to remote teaching:

FIRST DAY

FIRST WEEK

ALL WEEKS

Communication

  • Identify and contact nonparticipating or struggling students. What is New Analytics?
  • Respond to student questions and read all new posts within 24-48 hours
  • Use a positive, welcoming, encouraging, conversational tone
  • Post important information as Announcements: i.e. when grades are posted, when major projects, assignments and tests are coming up, etc.

Engagement

  • Identify and correct misconceptions

  • Summarize important concepts at the end of each week and explain how they connect to the objectives that students will learn next

  • Focus students on the weekly objectives

  • Solicit student ideas and opinions

  • Encourage reflection and critical thinking in discussions and assignments

Grading/Feedback

  • Provide frequent and consistent feedback to all students
  • Grade assignments and projects within 3-5 days of the due date
  • Provide feedback that contains both strengths and weaknesses based on the weekly objectives.

FINAL WEEK

  • Post an End of Class Announcement that includes when Grades will be available

  • Post Final Grades