For Faculty: Facilitating your online course
Your course is designed and prepped. Or maybe you are teaching a course that has been designed by someone else. Teaching an online course can take many different forms. From asynchronous activities to breakout rooms in Zoom, this section will help engage your students throughout the semester.
What are you trying to achieve?
Online activities can be just about anything. The best place to start is to revisit your learning objectives for a given week or unit.
Activities (asynchronous or synchronous) can then be designed to meet your goals for the unit. For example:
Build community in your online class
- Options for Building Remote and Hybrid Student Community (article from LSA)
- Learn about facilitating asynchronous online discussions
- Build a communication plan to help keep track of when, what and how to communicate to students
- Incorporate peer review into your online class
Facilitate engaging live sessions
- Read more about encouraging student participation in videoconferencing
- Our Participatory Sessions in a Virtual Environment facilitation guide includes strategies and techniques for engaging students in group work via videoconferencing
- General tips and tricks for hosting videoconference sessions, and how to get comfortable on-screen
Reach every student
- Consider how to create more accessible synchronous sessions
- Learn more about CRLT’s inclusive teaching principles
- Explore modules about Universal Design for Learning. (UDL) and accessibility in Canvas
Ensure students are making progress in your course
- What are the requirements for regular and substantive interaction?
- Not sure if testing or exams are the best assessment strategy for you? Consider alternative and authentic assessments.
- Formative assessments are tools that help you understand students’ understanding of a topic. Learn more about online strategies for formative assessments.