Welcome to Digital Dialogues! 

With the Online Quarantine Queens

Thanks for reading our weekly newsletter to provide you with support through the COVID transition!  This is our last newsletter for Spring 2020, but Ann and Becky will be back to support Summer and Fall classes and instructors as well.

Teaching Tip

Reviewing your Class and Prepping for Canvas

It’s that time of year when we are wrapping up our classes, and this semester in particular, I just want to close my laptop and sleep for about three weeks to recover from everything!

We’ve learned a lot this semester, and all have great ideas for how we can improve our courses and support our students in the future.  Whether Fall 2020 is a regular schedule or has more online offerings, there are things I know I need to change in my classes based on my experiences this Spring. My usual tactic is to assume I’ll remember things that need to change for the next semester, and then when I take a look at my class in late July or early August, I’ve forgotten all of them!  I’ve learned from this experience that my Summer and Fall courses will be better if I take a few minutes to review my course NOW instead of assuming that I’ll remember everything I want to modify later on.

Prepping your course and taking notes on things you want to change is especially important as we move towards transitioning to Canvas in the next year.  While classes won’t be taught through Canvas this fall, preparing and organizing your course materials now will help that transition to be seamless when it does happen.

Try this!

• Leads can ask other faculty for feedback on courses from Spring 2020, including things they learned from moving online to collect data to drive changes for the future.
• Assess the course organization and student activities from this semester and make a note of any changes or clarifications you’d like to try in Fall classes.
• Make a note of any feedback from students.  If you had activities where students sent multiple email questions, maybe you need more clarification on those instructions for future semesters.
• Did you use any new tools during the COVID-19 transition?  You might think about how you could implement activities with tools like Hypothes.is or FlipGrid in your Fall classes.
• Check organization in your course.  Are instructions clear and concise?  Are all materials current and in the right folder?  Are all of your links active? A well-organized course will transfer better to Canvas than a cluttered course with old materials and broken links.  Deleting these materials can help your Canvas transition to go smoothly, and will help students feel comfortable with course organization.

Resources

While we won’t be moving to Canvas until next year, here’s a great resource on assessing your readiness to move to the Canvas LMS.

The CTLD is offering some great training and other support this summer to help faculty prep classes for fall.