You’ve managed to get your classes up and running online in a very short timeframe – congratulations! We will continue to help you think about and plan how you teach your subject remotely for the session. To do this we will be showcasing ideas and methods that are simple and quick to implement, while also supporting you to enhance your subjects so they are as engaging as possible and acknowledging the challenges we face around short timeframes, technology and having to work and teach remotely.
Some of the questions we’re hearing from you that we’ll be addressing include:
My tutorials are up and running now, how can I enhance discussion amongst students?
I’ve got my large classes started with recorded videos, what can I do to encourage the students to engage with the ideas more?
My classes are structured around a lot of groupwork, how can I make this work well online?
I have replaced a final exam with a take home exam, can you help with the design to maximise academic integrity?
We’ve also recently heard what students like and want via the EFS and – drawing from the analysis of this by our DVC (Education and Students) Shirley Alexander – we’ve identified key themes in this data which might enhance the student experience. There are wide ranging from clarifying expectations through to managing zoom breakout rooms!
The IML and Postgraduate.futures teams will be offering support across these and other areas over the coming weeks through a range of webinars, blogs and resources that draw from examples from classes across disciplines and include quick guides for designing activities and assessment remotely with the available technologies. These will all be collated and made available via the Remote Teaching Toolkit.
The Toolkit is a revitalised and transformed version of the previous ‘Coronavirus Toolkit for Teaching.’ It is now organised into key areas including: What UTS Student Want, Making Remote Classes Engaging, Group Work, Feedback and Assessment, and Tools & Technology. We are also launching a new series including ‘Learning through COVID-19′ which provides an opportunity to make sense together of current experiences, to draw from research and knowledge across disciplinary fields, and to learn from these sudden new ways of learning, teaching and engaging with other. Look out for an upcoming blog for more on this.
If you are already comfortable with using technology to support your students’ learning opportunities online you can always jump ahead to the extensive resources already available externally – we’ll be curating and highlighting some of our favourites in the coming weeks on the toolkit. Those with experience teaching online might like to enrol to the Canvas course Moving to Teaching Online – this resource includes many excellent case studies drawn from across UTS.
I also want to acknowledge that the creation of the Toolkit and related support for remote teaching results from collaborative efforts. We are drawing from the ideas, resources and expertise from multiple teams within the DVC (Education and Students), across other Divisions as well as from within Faculties.
We’ll be adding to the Toolkit regularly in response to your questions, as well as providing examples and ideas to help you respond to student requests and feedback. if you have had come success trying something new, please get in touch at LX.lab@uts.edu.au so we can ensure this resource is shaped by the community using it!