Remote Teaching Overview and Strategies

• Communicate early and often. Let students know about changes or disruptions as early as possible, even if all the details aren’t in place yet, and let them know when they can expect more specific information. Avoid swamping them with email, but consider matching the frequency of your messages with that of changes in class activities and/or updates to the broader crisis at hand (for example, the campus closure is extended for two more days; what will students need to know related to your course?)
• Set expectations. Let students know how you plan to communicate with them, and how often. Tell students both how often you expect them to check their email, and how quickly they can expect your response. There are tools within Laulima that help you communicate with your students, such as Announcements and Email.
• Manage your communications load. You will likely receive some individual requests for information that could be useful to all your students, so consider keeping track of frequently asked questions and posting them within the Laulima Discussions and Private Messages tool so everyone can benefit. This way, students know they might get a group reply in a day versus a personal reply within an hour.

• Synchronous sessions should be value-added and should not be mandatory.Some students may be limited in the technology they have available. For example, they may only have access to a smartphone using data.
• Schedule lesson at consistent times. If using synchronous sessions, schedule them for the same days and times as the face-to-face classes, as this helps retain a sense of continuity and increases the students’ chances of being able to attend.
• Record your lectures to be watched at a later time. Recordings are not only helpful for students who were unable to attend the real-time session, but for students to revisit afterward to recall information, clarify concepts, etc.
• Setup and test your mic and camera before your sessions. If you plan to hold online lectures using Zoom or Google Meet, make sure you can initiate a meeting from your location and that you have the proper equipment (microphone, webcam.) Prior to trying out new strategies in your class, consider doing a trial run with a colleague or with support staff.

• Recorded sessions should be value-added. Some students may be limited in the technology they have available. For example, they may only have access to a smartphone using data.

• Take part of the lab online. Many lab activities require students to become familiar with certain procedures, and only physical practice of those processes will do. In such cases, consider if there are other parts of the lab experience you could take online (for example, video demonstrations of techniques, online simulations, analysis of data, other pre- or post-lab work), and save the physical practice parts of the labs until access is restored. The semester might get disjointed by splitting up lab experiences, but it might get you through a short campus closure.
• Investigate virtual labs. Online resources and virtual tools might help replicate the experience of some labs (for example, virtual dissection, night sky apps, video demonstrations of labs, simulations). Here are some possible resources:
  • Resource vary widely by discipline, so check with your textbook publisher or sites such as Merlot for materials that might help replace parts of your lab during an emergency.
  • Get Open Educational Resource assistance from our UH Hilo Librarians, Amy Saxton (saxton@hawaii.edu or Brian Bays bbays@hawaii.edu.
  • Explore the UH Online Innovation Center’s List of Available Virtual Labs.
• Provide raw data for analysis. In cases where the lab includes both collection of data and its analysis, consider showing how the data can be collected, and then provide some raw sets of data for students to analyze. This approach is not as comprehensive as having students collect and analyze their own data, but it might keep them engaged with parts of the lab experience during the closure.
• Explore alternate software access. Some labs require access to specialized software that students cannot install on their own computers. Depending on the nature of the closure (for example, a building versus the entire campus), the Office of Campus Technology (OCT) may be able to help set up alternate computer labs that have the software your students need.
• Increase interaction in other ways. Sometimes labs are more about having time for direct student interaction, so consider other ways to replicate that level of contact if it is only your lab that is out of commission.

• Use asynchronous tools when possible. Having students participate in live Zoom or Google Meet conferences can be very useful, but scheduling can be a problem and only a few students will actively participate (just like in your classroom). In such cases, using asynchronous tools like Laulima’s Discussions and Private Messages allows students to participate on their own schedules. In addition, bandwidth requirements for discussion boards are far lower than for live video tools.
• Link to clear goals and outcomes. Make sure there are clear purposes and outcomes for any student-to-student interaction. How does this activity help them meet course outcomes or prepare for other assignments?
• Build in simple accountability. Find ways to make sure students are accountable for the work they do in any online discussions or collaborations. Assigning points for online discussion posts can be tedious, so some instructors ask for reflective statements where students detail their contributions and reflect on what they learned from the conversation.
• Balance newness and need. As with any changed activities, you will need to balance the needs and benefits of online collaboration with the additional effort such collaboration will require on everyone else’s part. Learning new technologies and procedures might be counterproductive, particularly in the short term, unless there is clear benefit.

• Require only common software. Students may not have access to specialty software that they usually access in on-campus computer labs. Be ready with a backup plan for such students.
• Avoid emailed attachments. It may be easy to collect assignments in small classes via email, but doing so for online classes can swamp your email inbox. It’s recommended that you use the Laulima Assignments tool to collect assignments instead.
• State expectations, but be ready to allow extensions. In the case of a campus closure or other crisis, some students will undoubtedly have difficulties meeting deadlines. Make expectations clear, but be ready to provide more flexibility than you normally would in your class.
• Require specific filenames. It may sound trivial, but anyone who collects papers electronically knows the pain of getting 20 files named Essay1.docx. Give your students a simple file naming convention, for example, FirstnameLastname-Essay1.docx.

Online Exams

• Consider focusing on question types like essay or short answer.
• Use the Tests and Quizzes tool to randomize question order and distractor sequence.
• Make the exam available for a shorter window of time.
• Set at time limit on the exam attempt.

Possible Redesigning Your Exam (Alternatives)

• Cumulative written paper
• Reflection paper
• Portfolio
• Recorded student presentation