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Remote Learning Resources

Remote teaching and learning resources for Carthage faculty.

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 Updates on Resources and Support(back to top)

Updates on resources and support will be presented in this section on an ongoing basis. Tips and Troubleshooting advice will be provided as issues arise. Please check here regularly, as email messages will be sent regularly, but not each time an update is added to this section. Over time, information provided here will be incorporated into the standing sections on this page. 

Updates April 6

Experiences and Insights from Weeks 1 and 2

Schoology is working to adapt to the much heavier demand than anticipated, but is still working. Disruption can be minimized by accessing in non-peak hours, including early mornings and late evening/night, when possible. Whenever possible, give assignments open or extended due dates to minimize the impact of disruptions on students’ ability to complete assignments. 

One of the most challenging decisions we have to make in adapting to remote teaching is related to student workload. Some assignments that we would have introduced in and between classes are more challenging and time-consuming when adapted for remote completion. Expectations for readings and written assignments can often grow as we seek alternatives to lecture, discussion, and in-class work; however, students are sensitive to having more reading and written assignments while adapting to remote learning. Prioritizing content and assignments and eliminating what is less important may result in better, deeper learning, better performance, and higher student motivation. 

New Drop-In Sessions 

Chris Grugel and Zubia Mughal will provide additional technology drop-in sessions for faculty next week. Join to ask questions, learn from others, or share successes: 

More Tech Resources (to complement or supplement Schoology):

Curriculum Resources

Open Education Resources (OER): A list of repositories of multi-discipline lessons and modules in multimedia format. OER are educational products that exist in the public domain and/or possess an open license that allows them to be used for educational purposes at little to no charge.  

Google Maps for Exciting Virtual Field Trips : Use these tips to create lessons that “explore” worldwide locations. Using Google Maps to explore distant places brings a fresh and innovative approach to learning. Teachers and students can see the landscape of a foreign country or faraway place. In many instances, they can view it from ground level (or even underwater!) using Street View to see what the locals see. They can even tour landmarks and museums - all without ever leaving their desks.

Teaching Using Google Science Journal : Create lessons around Google Science Journal for an immersive science learning experience. Mobile app version is also available. Science Journal makes it easier for you to excite your students with fun experiments. Enrich your current lesson plans by using Science Journal to take notes and measure phenomena, then have students continue learning outside the classroom with Google Drive syncing.

Applied CS Skills with Google: Applied Computer Science Skills is a free online course by Google designed to prepare you for your CS career through hands-on coding experience. Special mention: Grasshopper App by Google for coding practice.

General Google Resources for Teaching : Explore resources and tools created by Google to inspire creativity, encourage hands-on learning, and equip your students with digital skills.

Lecture, Video, &  Meeting Tools

Make Google Meet Meetings More Effective : Tips on creating effective Google Meet sessions with students. 

Google Groups for Discussions : Another great way to stay connected with students through discussion board activities.

Google Jamboarding : If you like to use a whiteboard for teaching, you will like Google Jamboard. Use it with Google Meet to teach complex concepts with the aid of annotations and much more. 

Creating Your YouTube Channel for Teaching : Step-by-step instructions on how to create your YouTube Channel for your lecture-videos. 

How to Avoid Zoombombing : This resource provides tips on reconfiguring your Zoom account settings to manage your students during the Zoom sessions.  

Tech Resources for Students (faculty can share these with students)

Google Drawing for Students to Demonstrate Understanding : Step-by-step instructions on how to create drawings and annotations using Google Draw. 

Visual Tools to Showcase Knowledge : List of visual tools students can use to express their learning in assignments and presentations. 

Updates March 20

New Resources
Topical Google Groups
There are now five Google Groups to provide peer support for common technologies:

 These are “joinable” groups, so any instructor can join any of them as follows:

  •    Login to your Google mail
  •    Click the “waffle” (like Rubik’s cube) icon at the upper right and click Groups
  •    Search for any of the above group names by typing its name in the search box
  •    Click the group name
  •    Click the blue “Join group to post” button
  •    Click “Join this Group”

Access to Adobe Creative Cloud
All Carthage users, including students, now have access to Adobe Creative Cloud apps through the end of the semester.  Instructions are:

Zoom Pro account
So far, the 40-minute Zoom limit still applies to free subscribers from higher ed institutions.  You can, of course, do one Zoom session after another, but if, for reasons of time or features, you need a Zoom Pro account, please email to help@carthage.edu and state clearly what you need and why.

Tips and Troubleshooting

If you have issues accessing any specific resources, please make sure your password isn’t expired. (This has been a common issue lately.)  If you cannot successfully login at https://password.carthage.edu, then your password is expired; please use the Forgotten Password link on that page.

Please continue to submit all requests for help by email to help@carthage.edu.

Taking Perspective (back to top)

Consider the following:

  • It is natural to feel some stress and anxiety.  But remember, everyone is in this together. Faculty, staff and students are all experiencing varying levels of stress and anxiety. Everyone should do their best to be kind, patient, flexible, compassionate, and cooperative with one another.
  • As you think about how to deliver your course material in an alternative format, and with different tools, remember to set realistic goals and expectations – both for yourself and for your students. Focus on what can be done well under the circumstances and focus on executing those things.  Perfection does not need to be the standard. 
  • Accept that the course you will now be offering will likely not be the exact same course that you planned to offer – and that is absolutely alright. 
  • Remember to communicate with all of your students early and often.  Be clear and transparent.  It is more important now than ever to explain why you are asking them to do things in particular ways – and at particular times. And it is particularly important to show extra support to seniors who are in many cases overcome with anxiety and concern about graduation.  Whenever possible, help to craft flexible, constructive solutions to the obstacles they face.
  • Focus on the student learning outcomes that you have developed for your course. Take some time to prioritize what you believe is most important for students to know.  This may require you to refocus your efforts, reimagine some assignments (e.g., Can you replace a group presentation with a different kind of assignment, and/or skip some material completely?).
  • Get Support:  Take advantage of all the support that is available to you – trainings, resources on this webpage, LIS, the Teaching Common’s Webpage, our instructional designer, the tech group that has been established, etc.
  • Give Support:  If you have information, or know how to do something, that other people would benefit from, please share generously with others.
  • With challenge comes opportunity.  Learning how to deliver material remotely will be new knowledge and technology skills that can be used to complement and improve future courses offered in a face-to-face format.

Course Requirements (back to top)

Following are general requirements for all courses that will help guide large-scale transition to remote teaching and provide a consistent experience for students:

  • All instructors are required to post a syllabus, course schedule, and assignments on Schoology.
  • Synchronous class meetings (if used) must occur at the regularly scheduled class time. 
  • Courses should approximate the present workloads for students even as some expectations may be modified or substituted. 
  • All instructors should be available to students electronically during present office hours, or alternate hours if specified to the class. 
  • All learning and testing accommodations for students must be continued when courses are delivered remotely.
  • Clear explanation for how the class will operate during the remote period should be provided to students, and a way for them to ask questions about the general operation of the class should be provided. 

Course Adaptations (back to top)

Following are questions to guide your thinking about adaptations for your course:

  • Would re-ordering the sequence of topics addressed in the class make remote delivery more feasible? 
  • How might specific assignments be modified, rescheduled, or substituted to make remote completion more feasible? 
  • Where in your schedule might asynchronous (available anytime) delivery be advantageous for you and for your students? 
  • Where in your schedule might synchronous (live, in real time) delivery be advantageous for you and your students? 
  • How can Schoology or other technologies be utilized to ensure delivery of content, including assessments, and instructor-student and student-student interaction? 
    What are the most practical and easy-to-implement adaptations for you and your students?

Resources (back to top)

The following resources can be helpful when deciding how to convert traditional teaching strategies into remote teaching: Think about Instructor and Student Presence on Schoology.

SCHOOLOGY TOOLS TO ENGAGE WITH STUDENTS

Communicating with students in a remote learning environment builds trust and removes feelings of isolation.  (Click on the links to visit the support pages for each topic.)

Polling
Polling is a great tool for asking quick questions like: “How many of you think that the lecture video was easy to follow?” or “How many of you found connecting through Google Meet challenging?”.

Course announcements
Send out reminders, words of wisdom, encouragement, or a Socratic question on announcements. Sending out regular announcements creates a sense of formal course engagement and urgency to think about upcoming course related tasks.

Discussion Board
This is a great tool to provide opportunities for students to engage with each other and the professor. Use this tool for assignments or to discuss a learning artefact (pdf file, video, lecture etc). Create a General Q/A or Course Hallway discussion board activity that provides opportunity to students to post general questions.

Private and Class messaging to students
You can message individual students using Schoology for any course related alerts.

Schoology Conference app
Use this app for videoconferencing with your students during scheduled class time. Announce the use of this tool in announcement. Ask students to confirm they have read the announcement by replying back to the announcement. Set up the conference and use the whiteboard to share your lecture

Feedback on assignments (scroll down to “Give Student Feedback”)
Remote teaching requires a lot of individual feedback. Use the assignment feedback tool to send your comments for student performance. You can also individually message the student to comment on their progress.

Media Album
Use this feature to encourage students to post pictures of themselves in their homes, working on their courses. Seeing each other work remotely is motivating and encouraging and creates a sense of community. Use this feature to upload student messages in the form of images, audio or video for class presentation.

SCHOOLOGY BEST PRACTICES FOR REMOTE TEACHING 

Here are steps you can take to create an effective remote teaching experience:

TOOLS THAT WILL COMPLEMENT TEACHING ON SCHOOLOGY

These tools are not a part of the Schoology Learning Management System, but are recommendations and ideas on how to conduct your classes remotely. 

Delivering LIVE Lecture: Holding LIVE classroom sessions with your students:

Whiteboarding tools while delivering LIVE Lecture: If you like to draw or write while lecturing, here are tools that can help you accomplish that:

Recording Video Lecture: Recording video lectures and posting their links on Schoology.

Using your current Power Point Presentations for Remote Lecture:

Using multimedia to complement your lectures:

RESOURCES FOR QUALITY TEACHING EVALUATION

 

Learn On Your Own Workshops (back to top)

Faculty interested in learning on their own will find videos on the workshop topics at the links provided in the second For problems connecting call the helpdesk at 262-551-5950, or contact Carol Sabbar via Google Chat.

Workshop Link to YouTube Playlist
Schoology I Workshop Material Schoology I Playlist
Schoology II Workshop Material Schoology II Playlist
Delivering Lecture Material Workshop Using Google Meet for Video-conferencing/Lecture-capture

Ongoing Support (back to top)

Following are questions to guide your thinking about adaptations for your course: