Preparing to Teach Remotely and Doing It! – Pellissippi Academic Center of Excellence (PACE)

Recommended steps to get started

Table Of Contents

Step 1: Communicate with your students
Step 2: Create a Plan
Step 3: Update your syllabus
Step 4: Begin the process of adapting your course content
Step 5: Deliver
- Tutorials for D2L Brightspace and Microsoft Office
Step 6. First week back (Week 10: March 30 -) checklist

Instructional Help

Email: etselearn@pstcc.edu
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Step 1: Communicate with your students

Establish Communication

Share your expectations and tell student how to reach you. Be specific about times you are available and encourage students to stay engaged. Communicate proactively and let students know how quickly they can expect a response from you. Create an announcement in D2L Brightspace or Use your class listserv to establish communication

Tools and tutorials to establish communication

Share information

Create a place for students to ask and answer questions. Create a discussion forum in D2L Brightspace or Create a shared Word document to share information. Share: Preparing to Learn Remotely
Ask your students if they have a computer or other device to complete course content and if they reliable access to the internet when not on campus? If you are unsure or have concerns, let your Dean know.

Tools and tutorials to share information

Create virtual office hours

Make yourself available to students. Be sure to communicate your schedule and expectations about office hours.
Create a Virtual Classroom in D2L Brightspace (has to be enabled for your class section), Invite your whole class to a Microsoft Team meeting or use Zoom.

Tools and tutorials to hold virtual office hours

Step 2: Create a Plan

Acknowledge that this is a stressful time! Be patient with yourself as you make the mental transition from a traditional course format to a digital one. Flexibility is key; focus on your course goals and try to minimize the use of new tools. Low-tech solutions are okay! If email works best for you, use it. Be sure to test any tool that you want to use before trying it with students.

What can you and your students realistically accomplish in the remaining weeks of the term? How close to your original syllabus, goals and schedule can you keep? Come up with the learning goal(s) for each week remaining in your term.

Ensure whatever method you choose is accessible to all of your students. For assistance with accessibility, see the Accessiblilty and Universal Design web page or contact one of us for help. Also see the Teaching Remotely FAQ’s about Student Accommodations.

What materials (readings, videos, etc.) do you need for each week?

Some questions to ask yourself:

Do you have digital versions of the materials you still want to cover?
Ask your Subject Librarian for help finding digital materials
Does your book publisher offer any online learning materials, tools or assessments with their textbook?
Scan a document with your smartphone and the Adobe scan app. (Apple | Google)

Documents, slides, readings and links can be shared by email, One Drive, and D2L Brightspace.

How will you lecture?

Here are some ideas:

Write out your lecture and post it for your students in Brightspace or Microsoft OneDrive for your students to read.
Schedule a lecture in Microsoft Teams
Hold a live discussion in Brightspace Virtual Classroom
Use Screencast-o-matic to record a meeting/lecture and upload it to D2L BrightspaceThe free version of Screencast-o-matic allows you to create 15 minute videos, which aligns with best practices for chunking your online content.
Recording a lecture in PowerPoint and upload it to D2L Brightspace
Sharing a file via Microsoft OneDrive

How will your students interact?

How will students get academic support?

Hold virtual office hours
For tutoring on writing assignments, students should email the academic support center at ascatutor@pstcc.edu with the following information:
- From your Pellissippi State Webmail account, email your paper to ascatutor@pstcc.edu.
- Send your paper in the form of a Microsoft Word document. We are unable to provide comments to a pdf or other types of documents.
- Be sure to include the instructions and rubric for the assignment.
- Be patient. A response could take up to 24 hours.
For all other subject tutoring and questions, students should email tutor@pstcc.edu with the following information.
- What subject? Example: MATH 1530
- What topic? Example: Hypothesis testing
- Who is your instructor
- What is your Pellissippi ID number (P#)?
- Do you have video chat capabilities?
For research and citation questions or help with library resources, use the Ask a Librarian chat service.
- The chat widget can also be added to your course homepage for easy access.

How will your students complete assignments?

Students can submit assignments via D2L Brightspace Assignment tool or email.
Creating an assignment in D2L Brightspace
- Turning an assignment in (for Students)
Written assignments like essays or research papers may not need modification unless students are expected to collaborate or use library resources.
- Students may use OneDrive documents to collaborate
- Students can use any electronic library resources via the PSCC Library website
Consider which aspects of labs can be completed remotely. Students may be able to familiarize themselves with procedures and processes online. Online resources such as MERLOT may be used to locate materials that can replicate some lab experiences. Check with textbook publishers to look for additional free materials as well. Your subject librarian may also be able to assist you in locating open source lab content.

How will your students take quizzes/tests/exams?

What about giving students feedback and grading?

Giving students feedback

Use track changes and comments in MS Word

Video feedback via Screencast-o-Matic

Video feedback can also be recorded directly from the grading tool in Brightspace, using the Brightspace Video Notes tool: See the Beyond the Basics course in Brightspace to learn more about using Video Notes tool. (If you are not enrolled in Beyond the Basics, you can self-enroll by logging into Brightspace, under the Resource menu choose Discover and enroll in Beyond the Basics. )

Grading

This is where the power of a platform like D2L Brightspace really shows its stuff. We highly recommend the D2L Brightspace gradebook. Once you start using it, you will never stop using it. Plus it is a college supported tool that gives us the student record privacy that we need. For Gradebook information, see the Gradebook Health Check found in Brightspace under the Resources navigation link.

For more suggestions and resources, see the TN eCampus resource, “Strategies for Moving your Course Online Effectively and Efficiently. “

Step 3: Update your syllabus

Update a copy of your syllabus to include details of how the course will change, including changes to assignments, due dates, or class schedule.

You should not change:

the grading scale
the course outcomes
the course description
the disability statement
the suicide statement.

Only your Program Coordinator can change:

evaluation testing procedures
textbook

Step 4: Begin the process of adapting your course content

Teaching remotely requires adaptation of face-to-face content. You will likely need to adjust communication, content, assessments, and expectations for this novel situation.

Now that you have a plan (Step 2), and you have updated your syllabus, begin the process of digitizing, uploading, and linking with whatever plattforms and tools you feel comfortable using. How-to tutorials can be found in Step 2 items and below in Step 5.

And if you need help, along the way…

Step 5: Deliver

Tutorials for D2L Brightspace and Microsoft Office

D2L Brightspace

Fortunately, every course has a D2L Brightspace course shell with your students already enrolled in it. You don’t have to become an online instructor overnight to use this tool to teach remotely. Brightspace is a powerful tool, but it can be used very simply too to just organize your course content. You can use it to whatever degree you feel comfortable.

Brightspace tutorials to get you started

Microsoft Office

You may decide to use Microsoft Office to share files in OneDrive and hold meetings in Microsoft Teams. Every student, staff and faculty member can download the entire Microsoft 365 suite for free to their home computers. And remember, you can email your entire class from Microsoft Outlook (email) using the class listserv address.

Microsoft Office 365 tutorials to get you started

Step 6. First week back (Week 10: March 30 -) checklist

With so much going on as we get ready to go live in our online courses, here are just a few quick checklist items to make sure you and your students have a smooth transition.

Additional Resources

NISOD’s Teaching Online Toolkit is full of valuable resources for faculty transitioning their classes online. You will need the college username and password to access these resources. Contact pace@pstcc.edu for that information.