Many college faculty are being asked to quickly transition classes into an online environment. What follows is a quick guide on how to set up course sites and how to think about conducting classes online.

The E-Learning Technology Unit at the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library compiled this guide, and we are here to help! For additional information about specific technologies, or to talk about how to transition your classes and assignments online, please contact Justin de la Cruz at jcruz [at] auctr [dot] edu. (For other library inquiries, you can find us on the Chat box on our website, https://www.auctr.edu/, or contact staff directly via email: https://www.auctr.edu/about/people/staff-directory/)

How to Transition to Online Teaching in a Hurry:

Dr. Michelle Kazmer is a Full Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Information within the College of Communication & Information at Florida State University. She’s been teaching online since 1997 and developed a comprehensive guide on how to transition quickly to online teaching, which you can read in full on her blog:

http://chickenscratch.mkazmer.org/2020/03/18/michelles-online-learning-musings/

Among many tips, for faculty in this situation she suggests:

• Accepting help from anyone who offers.
• Doing what’s best for you and your students.
• Making your course syllabus your home page for your course site.
• Finding the “message all students” option and sending announcements to students with pertinent info.
• Making sure the course site is fully accessible to students.

Read the full post for much more information!

General Tips for Online Teaching:

The following tips were culled from the “Additional Resources” links included at the end of the post. These are aimed at producing an engaging and impactful experience for your classes:

Best Practice #1: Instructor Presence

Establish teaching presence early and often:

• Post announcements, appear on video and participate in discussions.
• Show your personality, passion, and expertise.

Best Practice #2: Create a supportive online course community 

This means designing a course so that the three dialogues of faculty to student, student to student and student to resource are equal. Here are some strategies that can be used to encourage peer-to-peer, student-to-student engagement and thus the building of a course community.

• Launch the class with a personal introduction posting so that students can get to know one another and you get to know “where students’ heads are.” The types of info often shared by faculty and students include info on professional experiences, personal information such as family/friends/pets, and a photograph.
• Encourage use of a general open student forum for students to post and request help and assistance from each other through the various student-to-student tools, such as discussions, help areas, etc.
• Set up small groups where students can assume responsibility for supportive mentoring of fellow students and summarizing key points of a class assignment. 

Best Practice #3: Share a set of very clear expectations for your students and for yourself as to how you will communicate and how much time students should be working on the course each week.

Include on your course site a set of expectations for how students communicate and dialogue online and how they communicate with you. For example, many faculty tell students that they can expect a response within 24 hours during the week. Often before a major test or assignment, faculty will agree to hold special office hours by computer, being available either by chat/live classroom or email, or phone.

In the interests of time and community, it is best to use a tool where responses and content can be shared with everyone and archived for flexibility in access and review. This basic expectation of response time can easily be modified – so long as the change is communicated to the students. It is easy to know what to do, if we think about the students as family for the term. Students are very accepting of a faculty member’s time and life requirements if they know what is going on.

Best Practice #4: Prepare Discussion Posts that Invite Questions, Discussions, Reflections and Responses

• Provide an open question and answer forum
• Encourage critical or creative thinking
• Achieve social interaction and community building – have the students get to know each other personally and intellectually

Additional Resources:

• “Teaching in the Context of COVID-19,” a collaboratively sourced Google Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yBE1cCqJ_4M-JZ62K4CefmYsZugqAWkGmZmdwESt0IM/edit
• “Everything is fine but… Strategies, Experts, Tools & Resources,” another collaboratively sourced document from attendees of this year’s Library Collective conference: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B70xudosWF3tcAHPw6YdmEv3EuLeUW_wIjgmRf-AGsI/edit?ts=5e6eb6cc#heading=h.he3mmnz11qxw
• “Ten Best Practices for Teaching Online,” a sample chapter from the book The Online Teaching Survival Guide by Judith V. Boettcher and Rita-Marie Conrad: https://tomprof.stanford.edu/posting/1091
• “Best Practices for Teaching Online,” by Andrew Salcido and Jessica Cole: https://teachonline.asu.edu/2018/09/best-practices-for-teaching-online/
• “Teaching Online Tips,” from Savannah State University: https://www.savannahstate.edu/elearning/teaching-tips.shtml
• “Zoombombing Resources,” a guide to reducing disruptions in your online learning environments, from the University of Southern California: https://keepteaching.usc.edu/tools/zoombombing-resources/