About the
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The Academic Continuity Plan is designed to provide solutions for the traditional courses taught at Northwestern 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 Online
Digital Teaching Resources
The Digital Teaching Resources exist to provide faculty with best practices for leveraging technology as they teach in any modality. Please choose the section that fits what you are looking for.
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Step 1: Getting Started
Step 2: Strategies
Step 3: Resources
Getting Ready for Online Teaching
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| title | Synchronous vs. Asynchronous |
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Synchronous vs. Asynchronous?
There are two options for instructors to facilitate class sessions remotely:
- 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.
- 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
- Immediate personal engagement between students and instructors, which may create greater feelings of community and lessen feelings of isolation
- More responsive exchanges between students and instructors, which may prevent miscommunication or misunderstanding
Disadvantages of Synchronous Teaching
- More challenging to schedule shared times for all students and instructors
- Some students may face technical challenges or difficulties if they do not have fast or powerful Wi-Fi networks accessible
Advantages of Asynchronous Teaching
- 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.
- Increased cognitive engagement since students will have more time to engage with and explore the course material.
Disadvantages of Asynchronous Teaching
- Students may feel less personally exchanged and less satisfied without the social interaction between their peers and instructors.
- 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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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
Possible Zoom Activities
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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| title | Provide a Video |
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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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Discussion
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If you planned to have students engage in a discussion, you could create an online discussion forum in Moodle. Create a ForumIf 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:
Ideas for Discussions
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Presentations
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| title | Student Presentations |
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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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Open the VoiceThread Access Link located at the top of the course site.
- Use your presentation slides to create a new VoiceThread. Directions are provided in the VoiceThread User Guide.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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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Who Should I Contact for Help?
For questions or assistance, please contact the following:
- Mark Henderson, Academic Technology Manager
- Online Learning Office
- IT Help and Support