So the last few weeks have been… something. Many of us found ourselves in the rush to get entire institutions online, often with incredibly limited resources to do so. I’ve been in the thick of this as well. Recently I shared some thoughts about institutions going online, as well as an emergency guide to taking a week of a class online quickly. I would like to add some more resources to the list that we have been developing since those posts.
First of all, I would like to repeat what many have said (and what I tried to emphasize in that first post): take care of your self, your family, and those around you first. Don’t expect perfection from yourself. Practice self-care as much as possible (I know that easier said that done). Then make sure to take care of your students as well. Communicate with them as much as possible, be flexible, remember that many aspects of their lives have been suddenly upended, and above all, make sure to be a voice of care in these times.
I also know that at some point, you will be expected to put your course online and teach something, whether you think it is a good idea or not. So for those that are at that stage, here are some more resources to help.
First of all, I am working with some other educators to put together a free course called Pivoting to Online Teaching: Research and Practitioner Perspectives (I didn’t really like the word “pivot,” but I was overruled). It is a course that you can take for free from edX, but for those that don’t want to register, we have been placing all of the content on an alternative website that requires no sign-up. Lessons are being created in H5P (remixable) and traditional html format. Archives of past events are also being stored here as well. We are halfway through Week 1, so plenty of time to join us.
As part of that course, I created a module template for an emergency switch to online. This is basically a series of pages that work together as a module that you can copy and modify to quickly create course content. It tends to follow many of the concepts we are promoting in the class (Community of Inquiry, ungrading, etc), but it can also easily be modified to fit other concepts as well. I basically went through my earlier post “An Emergency Guide (of sorts) to Getting This Week’s Class Online in About an Hour (or so)” and followed it in making a Geology module. Then I add some notes in red to talk about options and things you should think about if you are new to this. You can find the Canvas or IMS Common Cartridge version in the Canvas Commons that can be imported in Canvas, or downloaded and imported to systems that support IMS. However, since there are also other systems that don’t use either of these formats, I also made a Google Docs version as well as a Microsoft Word version for download.
And finally, the OER – our book Creating Online Learning Experiences:A Brief Guide to Online Courses, from Small and Private to Massive and Open is still available through Mavs OpenPress in Pressbooks (with Hypothes.is enabled for comments as well). I want to highlight a few of the chapters:
- The Mindfulness in Online Courses chapter is a great chapter to build in care for your students and yourself in your course. Don’t miss it!
- The Utilizing Social Learning in Online Courses chapter not only looks as social networks, but also issues you will need to address like privacy and codes of conduct.
- The Assessment and Grading Issues chapter as well as the Creating Effective Course Activities chapters will look at some ideas to break out of the Multiple Choice Box.
- The Creating Effective Course Content, Open Educational Resources, and Creating Quality Videos chapters are all full of tips for helping you find and create content for your course.
Of course, I like the whole book, so it was hard to pick just a few chapters, but those are the ones that would probably help those getting online quickly. When you get more caught up, I would also suggest the Basic Philosophies chapter as one to help guide you think through many underlying aspects to teaching online.
Matt is currently an Instructional Designer II at Orbis Education and a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously he worked as a Learning Innovation Researcher with the UT Arlington LINK Research Lab. His work focuses on learning theory, Heutagogy, and learner agency. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas, a Master of Education in Educational Technology from UT Brownsville, and a Bachelors of Science in Education from Baylor University. His research interests include instructional design, learning pathways, sociocultural theory, heutagogy, virtual reality, and open networked learning. He has a background in instructional design and teaching at both the secondary and university levels and has been an active blogger and conference presenter. He also enjoys networking and collaborative efforts involving faculty, students, administration, and anyone involved in the education process.