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The Academic Continuity Plan is designed to provide solutions for the teaching traditional courses taught at Northwestern remotely in the event of a campus closing during the semester. The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) will make the determination and announce whether this plan will be activated.

Prepare Yourself for Teaching

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Remotely

Before you get started preparing to teach remotely, go through the following checklist to make sure you have the hardware and access that you need to teach remotely.

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tooltipCheck your readiness to teach online.
titleCheck Your Readiness
urlhttps://confluence.unwsp.edu/x/YgGuBg

Step 1: Getting Started

Step 2: Strategies

Step 3: Resources

Getting Ready for Online Teaching


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Discussion

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titleOnline Discussion Forum

If you planned to have students engage in a discussion, you could create an online discussion forum in Moodle.

Create a Forum

If you were planning an in-class discussion, you can use an online forum to facilitate the discussion. Follow these instructions to create a discussion forum:

  1. At the bottom of the current week, add a discussion forum. See Add/Edit Activities & Resources for assistance.
  2. Give the forum and name and write the instructions in the Description textbox. It is recommended that you include the following in your instructions:
    1. Purpose: Why are students engaging in this discussion?
    2. Context: How is this related to the week’s topic and reading assignments?
    3. Instructions: What are students doing?
      1. Prompt: Clearly state the questions that students should be discussing.
      2. Participation: Describe the criteria for participating in the forum. For example, “Create your initial post by 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and reply to at least two other students by 11:59 p.m. by Friday.”
      3. Expectations: Clearly state how you expect students to reply to each other. For example, “Compare your analysis to your classmates’. Identify areas where your perspectives align and possibly differ.”
      4. Grading: Describe how this forum will be graded.
  3. Contact the Online Learning Office for assistance in incorporating this forum into the gradebook.
  4. You can adjust the settings if you wish or leave the default settings.
    You may want to divide the students into small groups to have the discussion. To learn how to setup a group discussion, see /wiki/spaces/IKB/pages/80282763. 

Ideas for Discussions

  1. Reflection: Watch a video or read an article provided by the instructor, and write a reflection about it.
  2. Find an Article: Instruct students to find an article that discusses a given topic. Then, have them post a link to the article and write a reflection.
  3. Open Q&A Forum: Allow students to question their peers and/or instructor about the material that they read this week.
  4. Role Play: Invite students to reflect on what they would think or recommend from the perspective of somebody in a situation related to your course content.
    • Exploring the perspectives of fictional people can empower more substantive discussion, since students may hesitate to argue for or against their own or their peers' actual perspectives.
  5. Debate: Stir some interest by inviting students to debate an intentionally provocative or contentious quote or statement. Set up the discussion forum ahead of time with a thread/topic for posts Defending the statement and a separate thread for posts Challenging the statement.
    1. Students first post an argument either defending or challenging the statement, in the respective thread.
    2. Then require students to reply to posts in the opposing thread with questions, counterexamples, and rebuttals, while also engaging any replies to their own initial post.
    3. Conclude with a third discussion thread asking students "Reflect on how your thinking on this topic changed or refined from the beginning of the discussion to the end.

Presentations

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titleStudent Presentations

If students were planning to give a presentation, they could record it using VoiceThread or Kaltura and submit it in Moodle.

Student Presentations using VoiceThread

If students were going to give presentations in class in groups or individually using slides (e.g. PowerPoint), they could create a VoiceThread presentation online and submit it via Moodle.

Instructors can follow these steps to get started.

  1. Your course site must include a VoiceThread access link before students can create a presentation. Contact the Online Learning Office for assistance in adding this link.
  2. Create a place for students to post their presentation link. This can either be a discussion forum or an assignment activity in Moodle. See Add/Edit Activities & Resources for assistance.
  3. Provide instructions for the assignment. Be sure to include how long the presentation should be and when it is due. Keep in mind that creating online presentations takes much longer than presenting in-class, so provide plenty of time for students to create and submit the presentation.

Provide the following instructions to students in order to create and share their presentation.

  1. Open the VoiceThread Access Link located at the top of the course site.
  2. Use your presentation slides to create a new VoiceThread. Directions are provided in the VoiceThread User Guide.
  3. Post the link to your presentation in the [location decided by instructor]. Be sure to keep the boxes checked for allowing anyone to view and comment. Directions are provided here: Getting a share link.

Student Presentations using Kaltura

If students were going to give presentations in class individually with or without slides, they could record a video using Kaltura Capture and submit it via Moodle.

Instructors can follow these steps to get started:

  1. Create a place for students to post their presentation link. This can either be a discussion forum or an assignment activity in Moodle. See Add/Edit Activities & Resources for assistance.
  2. Provide instructions for the assignment. Be sure to include how long the presentation should be and when it is due. Keep in mind that creating online presentations takes much longer that presenting in-class, so provide plenty of time for students to create and submit the presentation.

Provide the following instructions to students in order to create and share their presentation.

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titleSynchronous vs. Asynchronous

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous?

There are two options for instructors to facilitate class sessions remotely: 

  1. Synchronous: instructors and students gather at the same time and interact in “real time” with a very short or “near-real time” exchange between instructors and students.
  2. Asynchronous: instructors prepare course materials for students in advance of students’ access. Students may access the course materials at a time of their choosing and will interact with each over a longer period of time.

Instructors may choose to engage their students synchronously or asynchronously depending on the course content or material that needs to be taught. There are many advantages and disadvantages to asynchronous and synchronous teaching options. 

Advantages of Synchronous Teaching

  1. Immediate personal engagement between students and instructors, which may create greater feelings of community and lessen feelings of isolation
  2. More responsive exchanges between students and instructors, which may prevent miscommunication or misunderstanding

Disadvantages of Synchronous Teaching

  1. More challenging to schedule shared times for all students and instructors
  2. Some students may face technical challenges or difficulties if they do not have fast or powerful Wi-Fi networks accessible 

Advantages of Asynchronous Teaching

  1. Higher levels of temporal flexibility, which may simultaneously make the learning experiences more accessible to different students and also make an archive of past materials accessible.  
  2. Increased cognitive engagement since students will have more time to engage with and explore the course material. 

Disadvantages of Asynchronous Teaching

  1. Students may feel less personally exchanged and less satisfied without the social interaction between their peers and instructors. 
  2. Course material may be misunderstood or have the potential to be misconstrued without the real-time interaction.

Source: Stanford University, "Teaching Effectively During Times of Disruption, for SIS and PWR," CC-BY-NC-SA

Possible Online Activities

When a class is cancelled, the activities that were planned for class can be modified and take place online. Review the instructor guide to see what types of online activities would be the best solution. You are not limited to only one type of activity. Choose the appropriate activities that will best represent the class time that you originally planned. 

Communication To Students

If you choose to implement an online activity, make sure that you clearly communicate what you are doing and the expectations of the activity to your students via Quickmail, a course announcement, or another communication method.

Explore the examples below to learn more about these activities and tools.

Lectures

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titleVirtual Class Meeting

Instead of meeting on campus, you and your students can meet virtually via Zoom, a live video conferencing tool.  You can give a lecture, facilitate a class discussion, or have students give a presentation. Follow the directions below to create a Zoom meeting and invite your students.

Setup a Zoom Meeting

  1. Login to unwsp.zoom.us using your UNW credentials.
  2. Learn how to host a meeting here: /wiki/spaces/IKB/pages/80285624 
  3. Share the link to the meeting with your students via Quickmail, announcement, or another communication method.

Possible Zoom Activities

  1. Lecture and Whole Class Discussions: You can meet with your class just like you would in the classroom to provide information and have a discussion. If you have PowerPoint slides that correspond with your lecture, you can open them on your computer and share your screen with students so they can follow along. 
  2. Small Group Discussions: Another feature in Zoom that you may use is Breakout Rooms. This allow you to break your class into small groups for discussions. You can enter each of the rooms to monitor or participate in the discussions.
  3. Student Presentations: Students can give a presentation that they would have given in class during a Zoom meeting. If students have slides that correspond with their presentation, they also have the ability to share their screen. 

Be aware that our license agreement limits group meetings to a 40-minute time limit. If you need to meet for more than 40 minutes, you will need to end the first meeting after 40 minutes and start another meeting.

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titleProvide a Video

If you planned to give a lecture, you could either find a related video online (e.g.YouTube) or record your lecture. Then, share the video with your students in Moodle.

Provide a Link to a Video (e.g., YouTube)

You can find an online video(s) that covers the topics that you were planning on discussing in class and have students view it. Add the link to the video to the course site, and make it clear to students where you posted the link. You could also create an assignment based on this video such as a discussion forum or reflection paper.

Record a Lecture

You can record the lecture that you would have given in class and share it with your students using Kaltura.

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tooltipExplore the steps to get started teaching remotely.
titleStep 1: Getting Started
urlhttps://confluence.unwsp.edu/x/YgGuBg
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tooltipExplore strategies for teaching online.
titleStep 2: Strategies
urlhttps://confluence.unwsp.edu/x/YgGuBg
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tooltipExplore the resources available for you as you teach remotely.
titleStep 3: Resources
urlhttps://confluence.unwsp.edu/x/YgGuBg


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For questions or assistance, please contact the following:

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