Smeal Academy: Fall 2020 Readiness – Week 4
The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of Fall 2020. Between now and the end of July, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.
This week, we share resources that can help you prepare your syllabus. First off, we recommend that you continue to check in with Penn State’s website dedicated to the return to teaching in fall, https://keepteaching.psu.edu/. An announcement has been posted there that states that, “The University will provide syllabus language for instructors on safety protocols and guidance for managing the classroom.” Currently, there is an evolving document available that shares syllabus policy guidance regarding enforcing mask-wearing in class. We will share additional information as it becomes available through the Smeal Academy emails.
Remember that the syllabus serves as a contract between the instructor and students, giving students information they need to understand in order to be successful in your class. In many cases, the syllabus is the first point of contact with students. A well-written syllabus provides a solid foundation for the entire semester. There are critical elements and policies that every syllabus should contain. eLDIG’s Canvas templates include an example syllabus that you can easily download and modify (email smealtlthelp@psu.edu if you can’t access).
Current News
Masking and social distancing classroom policies in effect for fallA July 2 PSU News story noted that, “To reduce the risk of widespread virus transmission, wearing face masks and social distancing will be required for all students and employees in classrooms, labs, offices and campus buildings. Students and employees also should practice social distancing, avoid large gatherings and wear face masks while on campus, as well as within their local communities in line with local and state requirements.” The University has purchased masks to help with compliance. Additionally, students (and faculty) who are sick are encouraged to stay home. The article further states that, “While high levels of compliance are expected based on feedback from recent student and employee University surveys, those who put others at risk by not following the University’s requirements will be held accountable in a manner consistent with how other violations of Penn State guidelines and policies are managed.
We encourage faculty to consider how this policy will be reflected in your course syllabi. As resources become available, we will add them to our shared Canvas course resources.
Helpful Websites
Upcoming Live Sessions: Boost Your Course Using Office 365
- Office 365 isn’t just Office Suite: Get the most out of Office 365 with a deep dive into some new features from Microsoft. Join us Wednesday, July 8, from 10 to 11 a.m. via Zoom.
- Strategies and Tools for Live and Pre-recorded Course Videos: Are you pre-recording your lectures for Fall, but aren’t sure where to begin? Do you have questions about Zoom settings for teaching and learning? Are you curious about best practices for sharing your recordings? This session will focus on tips and strategies for recording, hosting, and sharing recordings from an instructor’s perspective. Join us Wednesday, July 15, from 1 to 2 p.m. via Zoom.
NOTE: Recordings and resources from previous sessions can be found on our eLDIG Website.
Tips of the Week
Tip #1: Write your syllabus with your students in mind. You may find it helpful to ask a colleague or friend to read your syllabus and provide feedback.
Tip #2: The use of visual syllabi is on the rise. In many cases students find them more appealing than a strictly print-based one and thus tend to read them with more care. Creation of visual syllabi requires some ability to work with graphics and are harder to update, so they are not for everyone! If you are interested, here are some sites to investigate:
Resources
Ask eLDIG/RIIT – Open Consultations
Zoom Hours:
- Thursday, July 9, 1 to 3 p.m.
- Thursday, July 16, 10 to 11 a.m.
- More to be announced
Website
Check out the eLDIG website for more resources and support.
Contact Us
Email us at: course-support@smeal.psu.edu or fill out our Remote Teaching Support form.
Smeal Academy: Fall 2020 Readiness – Week 3
The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of Fall 2020. Between now and the end of July, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.
This week, we share resources that can help you identify strategies and solutions for course communication.
Clear communication with students is critically important. Research indicates that student retention is often directly correlated with how connected students feel with their peers and their instructors (Richardson, 2017). Taking the time to post a weekly Canvas announcement can help keep your students on track and engaged in your course, especially when you may be relying more upon remote instruction. Use Announcements as a narrative to guide students through each week of your course. Supplement those announcements with email as needed for individual communication.
In addition, the way you manage your grading and student feedback is a reflection of your online presence and plays a vital role in student success. Use Canvas tools to provide personalized feedback to students so they can identify what they did well and areas that need improvement. Feedback can be in the form of written comments or audio or video feedback.
Finally, remember to keep the communication two-way. Provide ways for students to give you feedback about what is working and what is not – especially in this unprecedented semester.
Richardson, J. C., Maeda, Y., Lv, J., & Caskurlu, S. (2017). Social presence in relation to students’ satisfaction and learning in the online environment: A meta-analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 71, 402-417.
Current News
A June 30th Penn State Newswire article about race and diversity noted that Marcus Whitehurst, Vice Provost for Educational Equity, will kick off a new three-part series of diversity roundtable discussions titled, “Toward Racial Equity at Penn State: Social Difference, Social Equity and Social Change.” The first part, “Race, Our Campus Climate and Workplace,” will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. on June 30 at https://watch.psu.edu/toward-racial-equity/ The other parts will take place on Sept. 8 and Nov. 5.
Helpful Websites
Upcoming Live Sessions: Boost Your Course Using Office 365
- Office 365 isn’t just Office Suite: Get the most out of your Office 365 subscription with a deep dive into some new features from Microsoft. Join us Wednesday, July 8 from 10 to 11 a.m. via Zoom.
- Strategies and Tools for Live and Pre-Recorded Course Videos: Are you pre-recording your lectures for Fall but not sure where to begin? Do you have questions about Zoom settings for teaching and learning? Are you curious about best practices for sharing your recordings? This session will focus on tips and strategies for recording, hosting, and sharing recordings from an instructor’s perspective. Join us Wednesday, July 15 from 1 to 2 p.m. via Zoom.
NOTE: Recordings and resources from previous sessions can be found on our eLDIG Website.
Tips of the Week
Tip #1: Be clear with students about your communication plans, including setting clear expectations regarding when students can expect email replies from you.Tip #2: Consider making an announcement or providing general feedback to all students about assignments that highlights how the class did overall, demonstrates solutions where appropriate, and provides resources or tips to help students improve and grow.
Resources
Ask eLDIG/RIIT – Open Consultations
Zoom Hours:
- Thursday, July 9, 1 to 3 p.m.
- Thursday, July 16, 10 to 11 a.m.
- More to be announced
Website
Check out the eLDIG website for more resources and support.
Contact Us
Email us at: course-support@smeal.psu.edu or fill out our Remote Teaching Support form.
Smeal Academy: Fall 2020 Readiness – Week 2
The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of Fall 2020.Between now and the end of July, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.
This week, we share resources that can help you organize your Canvas learning spaces. This will be especially important for the majority of courses that will not be able to meet in person for all or most of their sessions. Designing a course with an organized structure, clear and consistent instructions, leveraging integrated tools, will reduce the number of student emails from students seeking clarification about course tasks and assignments.
Current News
All Smeal Faculty received an email from Matt Mooney describing four instructional modes for Fall. If you need help deciding which mode will be best for you, please feel free to log into one of our upcoming virtual consultations (see below) or by emailing the eLDIG team at: smealtlthelp@psu.edu.
Instructional Modes – Rooms Assigned
In Person Mode will still require an accommodation to be made for the students that are notable to attend the face-to-face instruction through synchronous Zoom connections or asynchronous instruction. Given the limited number of classrooms that can accommodate more than 18-20 students at a time, a number of Smeal courses would not be able to select this model. To put this into perspective, the Auditorium in the Business Building (BB110) has 150 seats but can only hold 28 students as a result of social distancing (SD) requirements, the Forum Classroom has 357 seats with a SD capacity of 64, and 100 Thomas has 726 seats with a SD capacity of 130.
Mixed Mode is recommended for courses with small enrollments such as smaller graduate-level or upper division courses. Even in the best of circumstances, most of these courses will still need to rotate a portion of the students in and out of the classroom to accommodate social distancing. Faculty will still need to make accommodations for the students that are not able to attend the face-to-face instruction.
Instructional Modes – Rooms Not Assigned
Remote Synchronous is our recommended approach for the majority of Smeal courses. From a logistical perspective, this mode provides the flexibility of synchronous instruction while still allowing for aspects of asynchronous instruction to be included. It puts both faculty and students in the same instructional environment. This allows for a faculty member to share their screen or provided a “lightboard” or whiteboard recording of examples, faculty/student interaction, real-time Q&A, and so on. I realize this still requires modification of your instructional approach compared to In-Person or Mixed Mode, but the management of some face-to-face students, some Zoom students, and some watching a recording seems a lot more labor intensive and the quality of audio (while wearing a mask) and video (a camera pointed at the podium, not the whiteboard) for the portion of students learning remotely would be a lower quality learning opportunity.
Remote Asynchronous has two major limitations. First, if you select this mode, you no longer have a scheduled class meeting time. Any synchronous instruction must be optional as students could be scheduled for another class or have other obligations (e.g., work, family, and so on) at the time you select. Additionally, this requires a fully developed online course which is much more involved than would be required for the Remote Synchronous mode.
Helpful Websites
Upcoming Live Sessions
- Canvas Basics
- Office 365 isn’t just Office Suite: Get the most out of your Office 365 subscription with a deep dive into some new features from Microsoft. Join us Wednesday, July 8 atfrom10-11AM via Zoom.
NOTE: Recordings and resources from previous sessions can be found on our eLDIG Website.
Tips of the Week
Tip #1: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel! Consider using LinkedIn Learning and other third-party videos instead of recording everything on your own.Tip #2: Check out the eLDIG Canvas courses with Lesson Templates and Teaching Tips (If you receive an access denied error, please email SmealTLT Help and we will add you to these courses):
Resources
Ask eLDIG/RIIT – Open Consultations
Zoom Hours:
- Thursday, July 9, 1 to 3 p.m.
- Thursday, July 16, 10 to 11 a.m.
- More to be announced
Website
Check out the eLDIG website for more resources and support.
Contact Us
Email us at: course-support@smeal.psu.edu or fill out our Remote Teaching Support form.
Using iPads as Whiteboards in Remote Learning:
This July 22, 2020 session, led by Mark DeLuca, explored strategies and best practices for using iPads as whiteboards when leading remote classes via Zoom.
Whiteboarding Solutions by Level of Difficulty:
- Low-tech: Use a drawing pad and hold it up to the screen.
- Mid-tech: You can use the Zoom Whiteboard for simple things.
- High-tech: For more complex things (equations, formulas) you could use a touchscreen PC, or a tablet (iPad or Android). You then log into the same Zoom room on both your computer and touchscreen devices and share your screen on the touchscreen device when needed.
If you have an iOS device, Zoom has additional ways to share your screen.
Whiteboarding with an Android Tablet
General How-to’s
Penn State ITLD Capturing Instructional Content with Video
Capturing Instructional Content with Video (PSU IT Learning & Development) Video
PSU IT Learning and Development (companion website to above video)
This 23-minute video covers how to capture live video in an in-person class, live video when you are teaching remotely, and pre-recorded video for asynchronous delivery. Topics include:
- Compare Recording Options for Capturing Instructional Content
- Set Up Your Recording Space
- Choose Your Tool
- Record, Prepare, and Share Your Content
Not interested in the whole thing? There are “jump” links that let you go only to the information you seek! Or check out the companion website.
Zoom Whiteboard Guide
UCSF’s Zoom Guide for Facilitators Using Whiteboard Options
Additional Tools and Resources
Jamboard is a collaborative whiteboard available in our Penn State Google Education Suite
Duke University Tools for using screen annotation and handwriting
Welcome to the Smeal Academy: Fall 2020 Readiness!
The goal of the Smeal Academy is to equip everyone with best practices and strategies for teaching, learning, and technology to ensure the Smeal community is prepared to respond to the unique challenges of Fall 2020. Between now and the end of July, we will be sending weekly emails with practical tips and information, providing live sessions, and holding virtual consultations.
Current News
University Announcements: https://virusinfo.psu.edu/Smeal Announcements: https://www.smeal.psu.edu/virus-info.
Upcoming Live Sessions
TEACHTalk: Hybrid Models for Learning, Part 2
Hear about how ACCTG 211 and FIN 301 implemented a flexible model based on student choice. If you are considering adopting a shared content model using some of their strategies or just want to learn more, please join us on Wednesday, June 17 from 11am-Noon via Zoom.
Canvas Basics
New to Canvas? Want a refresher? This is the session for you! Join us on Wednesday, June 24 at 2 – 3PM via Zoom.
Hear about how ACCTG 211 and FIN 301 implemented a flexible model based on student choice. If you are considering adopting a shared content model using some of their strategies or just want to learn more, please join us on Wednesday, June 17 from 11am-Noon via Zoom.
Canvas Basics
New to Canvas? Want a refresher? This is the session for you! Join us on Wednesday, June 24 at 2 – 3PM via Zoom.
Tips of the Week
Tip #1: Get started on your Canvas development.
Using a Canvas Master Course to design and develop your course is considered best practice. You can import your completed Master Course into your live Canvas course section(s) prior to the start of the semester. Request your own Master Course in Canvas: https://pennstate.service-now.com/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0011048
Tip #2: Upgrade your syllabus.
A great syllabus will save you time! Students will ask fewer questions when course expectations are clear. See Building Stellar Syllabi for more information: http://www.personal.psu.edu/bxb11/Syllabus/.
Resources
Ask eLDIG/RIIT – Open Consultations
Zoom Hours:
- Thursday, July 9, 1 to 3 p.m.
- Thursday, July 16, 10 to 11 a.m.
- More to be announced
Website
Check out the eLDIG website for more resources and support.
Contact Us
Email us at: course-support@smeal.psu.edu or fill out our Remote Teaching Support form.
Strategies and Tools for Live and Pre-recorded Course Videos
Are you pre-recording your lectures for Fall, but aren’t sure where to begin? Do you have questions about Zoom settings for teaching and learning? Are you curious about best practices for sharing your recordings? This July 15 session led by Ian Nalepa and Renee Ford focused on tips and strategies for recording, hosting, and sharing recordings from an instructor’s perspective.
Resources
- eLDIG Canvas Course Link (scroll down to the “How to Add and Embed Course Videos” module)
- PSU ITLD Zoom Learning Path for Hosts
- PSU ITLD Kaltura Learning Path