Regardless of the mode of delivery, the focus needs to remain student-centered and on achievement of the learning objectives. In planning, this is an opportunity to re-think the content, activities, and even assessments from a new point-of-view.

Below is a simple approach that might help frame your mindset during the development and execution of an effective plan.

• Review your syllabus

• • Adapt your syllabus and your course to focus on being flexible and to best achieve student learning regardless of the modality.
  • Realize that plans may need to evolve based on developing circumstances. Therefore, additional changes to your syllabus and course may become necessary (policies, due dates, assignments, technology, changes to grading structure, etc.).
  • Utilize your syllabus, email, HuskyCT announcements, and discussion boards to provide students with as much detail as you can.

•  Review (or establish) your course, module, and session learning objectives

• • Having learning objectives will guide your decision-making on how to proceed with your course.
  • Well written, measurable, student-centered learning objectives not only allow you to choose the best activities and content for your face-to-face class but they also allow you to be more intentional and directed as you choose learning strategies that lend themselves to remote online delivery.
  • Learning objectives will serve as a guide for what is most important for the students to learn and for you to accomplish in your teaching and facilitation.
  • All activities and assessments should align directly to your learning objectives.

• Establish a plan for what aspects of the course will need to be transformed and which can be transferred

• • Many activities in the course will need to be transformed for the digital environment.
  • Consider which activities do not lend themselves to the remote environment and decide what different approaches could be used that will still meet the course and module learning objectives. This will include ways to present content, conduct activities, and assess learning.
  • It may be possible to directly transfer some experiences to the remote environment.
  • While working to creatively brainstorm possible methods to transform the course, take advantage of the expertise in your department to discuss ideas, successes, and lessons learned with colleagues.
  • Access support materials on this website, the EdTech website, and the eCampus website.
  • Attend workshops hosted by CETL.
  • Contact CETL for individual consultation.

• Plan and create your assessments
  • Rather than using quizzes and tests, consider incorporating discussion posts, assignments, group projects, and authentic assessments.
  • Authentic assessments ask students to perform a task and use the knowledge from the course in a way that is relevant to the skills required once they have finished the course or graduated.
  • Consider if you can administer an open-resource assessment or how you will monitor student behavior.
  • Consider asking students to develop assessment questions and projects for their peers with the answers to these problems.
  • Create multiple types of assessments that measure the same objectives.
  • Describe what students will need to know or be able to do and how they should complete and submit the assessment when explaining new assessments.
  • Let students know how, if at all, the new assessment(s) will affect the way course grades are calculated (Note: Try to keep these changes minimal)
  • In all cases, share with students that this is new for you as well, and solicit their feedback to clarify assessment expectations.

Check out our Assessment page for more details

• Create your content and activities
  • Delivery of class content and student engagement activities will look very different in the remote environment.
  • Utilize software available through UConn, such as HuskyCT, Kaltura, WebEx, and Teams. Instructors and students also have access to a wide range of other software, such as Microsoft Office application through the UConn Software Catalog or through UConn Anyware.
  • Replicating laboratory activities can be a challenge. Consider these options:
    • Consider moving part of the lab online, such as video demonstrations of new techniques, online simulations, data analysis, or pre/post lab work. Any components of the lab that require the physical lab space may need to wait until access to the lab is restored.
    • Investigate online resources and virtual tools to help replicate the lab experience. Video demonstrations of lab or simulations are often available online but so are virtual labs. Many of these are available at little to no cost on homeschooling website, YouTube, or various teaching sites. Also textbook publishers or sites such as Merlot offer materials that may help replace parts of your lab.
    • If students will be unable to collect data, consider providing raw data for students to analyze. Videos or live demonstrations of the data collection process can help students to understand how the data was collected.
    • Remember to replicate opportunities for instructors to interact directly or indirectly with the students. If videos of lab components are provided, embed questions into the video. Consider providing discussion prompts or holding online discussions or demonstrations.
    • Be aware that students may not have access to all software used in the lab.

For information about educational technology tools available at UConn, check out the EdTech website.

• Provide class materials

• • Utilize HuskyCT to post course materials.
  • Mobile-friendly formats such as PDFs, MP3 and MP4 files, will help students that are using mobile devices. Consider saving other files, such as PowerPoint, to PDFs, which are easier to read on phones and tablets.
  • Videos require extensive bandwidth so choose your media wisely and deliver it from a streaming service like Kaltura, rather than embedding it directly into HuskyCT (Note: all HuskyCT sites have a size limit so embedding videos directly into HuskyCT, rather than through Kaltura, will use up space quickly)
  • Make sure student know when new material is posted. HuskyCT announcement tool can be an effective communication tool for this purpose.

• Communicate with your class

• • Communicate early and often, even if you do not have all the details of your reimagined course figured out yet.
  • Set the expectation for how you plan to communicate and how often, along with how best to reach you and how quickly they can expect a response from you.
  • When you receive individual requests for information, consider sharing the response with the entire class; this will ensure everyone has the information necessary and reduce the number of times you answer the same questions.

• Develop a plan for student authentication
  • The University must implement procedures to verify that the student who registers in an online or remote course is the same student who participates in and completes the course and receives academic credit.
  • NECHE accreditation standard 4.48 and Federal requirements under Sec. 602.17(g) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 require the University to verify that a student who registers in a "distance education or correspondence education course"is the same student who participates in and completes the course and receives academic credit.
  • At UConn, courses listed as Distance Learning (DL) or Online (WW) fall under the federal guidelines listed above. To meet the federal and accreditation standards, faculty should follow these guidelines.
• Meet Student Accommodations and Make Resources Accessible
  • In moving to remote online teaching we need to still be mindful of the need for student accommodations. Be prepared to be responsive to requests for accommodation but also try to make your content accessible ahead of time.
  • Considerations for meeting accommodations and making resources accessible:
    • One of the most common accommodations is extended time, particularly for exams and quizzes. This can be accomplished in HuskyCT for exams and quizzes by adding an exception: https://confluence.uconn.edu/ikb/teaching-and-learning/huskyct/instructor-support/giving-quizzes-and-exams-in-huskyct/how-to-accommodate-extra-test-time-and-or-allow-a-different-test-time
    • Ensure all videos and multimedia are accurately captioned. Kaltura offers machine captioning but it will need the instructor to correct for accuracy.
    • Provide a transcript for audio files.
    • For images, such as pictures, illustrations, and charts, provide meaningful alternative text to convey the purpose.
    • Avoid using color or color changes alone to convey meaning.
    • Write meaningful link text with links embedded in text describing the link’s destination.

To learn more about accessibility: https://accessibility.its.uconn.edu/