eCampus

Below is a compilation of some helpful readings.

In the event of a teaching disruption, communicate with your students early and as things change. Inform them of your expectations and also communicate what they can expect from you.  Students will look to instructors for information and clear directions as well as a sense of normalcy.

Considerations when communicating with your class:

• 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. But try to balance rather than overload the communication.
• Set expectations: Let students know how you plan to communicate with them, and how often you expect them to check their email, and how quickly they can expect your response. Let them know the best method to contact you.
• Manage your own communications load: When you receive individual requests for information that could be useful to all your students, keep track of and send those replies out to everyone. Also, consider creating an information page or discussion forum in HuskyCT to answer most frequently asked questions.

University technology options for communicating with your class:

• HuskyCT

• • Announcements provide time-sensitive information to the entire class. Considering sending announcements related to online course plan, changes to syllabus, due dates for assignments and projects, instructions, corrections or clarifications, and exam schedules.
  • Course messages provide private communication within the course among course members. Course messages are similar to email except you must be logged into a HuskyCT course to read and send course messages. Utilizing the HuskyCT message function allows you to keep all courses related messages in the same place.
  • Discussion Boards can be used as a form of communication. Faculty can use a discussion forum to share information, particularly responses to frequently asked questions, so all students will benefit from the information.
• Email

Internet Access

You may wish to share this information with your class:

• Internet Providers and Private Businesses Facilitating Access to Free Internet and Wi-Fi

NEASC accreditation standard 4.48 and Federal requirements under Sec. 602.17(g)of the Higher Education Act of 1965 require the University to verify that a student who registers in a "distance education or correspondence education course" is the same student who participates in and completes the course and receives academic credit. At UConn, courses listed as Distance Learning (DL) or Online (WW) fall under the federal guidelines listed above. The major disruptions to the Fall Semester related to the Covid-19 outbreak have led to far more courses being offered as DL or WW. To meet the federal and accreditation standards, faculty should follow the guidelines provided here:

Authentication of Students

Considerations when posting new course materials:

• Make sure students know when new material is posted. The HuskyCT Announcement tool can be an effective communication tool for this purpose.
• Mobile-friendly formats such as PDFs, MP3, and MP4 will help students that are using mobile devices. Consider saving other files (such as PowerPoint presentations) to PDFs, which are easier to read on phones and tablets. Videos require a lot of bandwidth, so choose your media wisely and deliver it from a streaming server/service like Kaltura.
• For courses using commercially available films, consult the library about putting an electronic copy on reserve. All videos should be captioned.

University technology options for posting new course materials:

• HuskyCT
  • Adding files (.pdf)
• Kaltura
  • Upload videos (.pdf)
  • Recording videos (.pdf)
  • Editing video information (.pdf)
  • Editing video and creating a quiz (.pdf)
• Adding videos to your HuskyCT site (.pdf)
• Sharing videos outside HuskyCT site (.pdf)
• UConn Library Course Reserves for Instructors

UConn Library Support & Services

Visit the UConn Library's site for updated information about Library services, access to materials, and levels of support. during the closure.

Copyright & Fair Use

• Public Statement of Library Copyright Specialists: Fair Use & Emergency Remote Teaching & Research, (March 13, 2020, external Google Doc)
• Fair Use & Copyright Help, UConn Library
  • Fair Use Evaluator
• Reproduction of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians, Copyright.gov

Always Consider Accessibility

• IT Accessibility website

Use audio and video content in order to provide further perspective, examples, explanations, or clarifications.

Tips/Considerations when recording a lecture:

• Use headphones with a microphone to minimize surrounding noise and maximize your voice.
• Create an outline or draft a script for the lecture before recording.
• Keep videos less than 10 minutes each. Students are more likely to maintain focus and retain information when viewing shorter videos than with long ones. Long videos also may cause problems successfully uploading to Kaltura.
• Embed quiz questions into the video. This can help engage students with the material and allow them to check for understanding.  Alternatively, give a post video quiz using HuskyCT's Test tool.
• Upload PDF files, media, website links, and other readings that support the content of your lecture into HuskyCT.
• All videos should be captioned. Kaltura offers free machine-generate captioning. While the captions are surprisingly accurate, the instructor must review the captions for accuracy.

University and other technology options for recording lectures:

• Kaltura Capture enables instructors to record and publish audio, video, and screen captures, and integrates using My Kaltura Media in HuskyCT.
• Powerpoint allows you to create slides. add audio to each slide, and export an mp4 video file to upload to Kaltura.
• Camtasia
• iMovie

Considerations when presenting a synchronous experiences online:

• For faculty that want to replicate the lecture and discussion format of their regular class online, we recommend they consider using Blackboard Collaborate BUT ONLY IF THEY DO SO DURING THEIR REGULARLY SCHEDULED CLASS TIME. This synchronous option is pursued by those who believe that teaching and learning is best done at the ‘same time’ even if participants are at different locations/spaces. These live-streamed lectures (with affordances for student participation) can also be recorded and stored for later viewing. If a Collaborate session is created in HuskyCT, it automatically provides access to all students enrolled in the course.
• Synchronous offerings will be challenging for the students and even for the faculty. A lack of wi-fi or slow internet connection may make streaming difficult. Consider using audio only without video. Video will require more bandwidth.
• Use USB headphones with a microphone to minimize surrounding noise and maximize your voice.
• If using WebEx, Collaborate, Google Meet or other conferencing system, mute any participants who are not presenting. As the host, instructors are able to mute and unmute participants when necessary.
• If using the Blackboard app on phones, be sure to install the latest version of the app if you have not updated in a while. The phone app does not allow for sharing of content, just audio and video.
• Content should be recorded and posted on HuskyCT so students who are unable to join due to connection issues can view content at a later time. Collaborate saves the recordings in the Collaborate Ultra Tool. If they use WebEx they will need to link to the video or share a link to it somehow.
• Upload PDF files, media, website links, and other readings that support synchronous content.

University and other technology options for synchronous content:

• Collaborate Ultra is an online tool in HuskyCT that offers unique in-session tools, such as breakout rooms, an interactive whiteboard, application sharing, polling, and a hand-raising feature to enhance engagement and the face-to-face-feel of synchronous experiences. Please note that the Blackboard app on phones works with Collaborate but only audio and video can be used but content can not be shared. Therefore the phone app should only be used if only talking with students and not sharing any content.
  • Collaborate Ultra Users Guide
  • More information on Collaborate Ultra
• WebEx allows participants can collaborate online in real-time through the sharing of audio, video, and your computer screen.
• Google Meet - Hangouts Meet is a video-conferencing tool that is available to all UConn faculty, staff, and students through G Suite. It enables video meetings on your chosen device for up to 250 people and is integrated with the tools in G Suite.  Meeting invitations can be sent from Gmail and Google calendar and recorded meetings saved to Google Drive.

Considerations when presenting an asynchronous collaboration or discussion:

• The use of asynchronous (def: Not at the same time) tools is recommended whenever possible. While live conversations can be useful, students may have technology challenges during any closures. Bandwidth requirements for discussion boards are significantly less than synchronous tools.
• Communicate clear guidelines in discussion prompts to establish your expectations for student contribution, including writing style, number of posts, length of posts, frequency of posts, and content.
• Develop questions and prompts that require complex thinking and the application of concepts while avoiding repetitive student responses.
• Motivate active involvement by making students accountable for online discussions and collaborations.
• Use threaded discussions to allow students to respond to one another multiple times in an organized fashion.
• Be present in the discussion by providing feedback and coaching to student responses.
• Provide students with a variety of ways to participate including text, audio, or video.
• Create student groups for breakout communications and projects.

See:

How to Make Breakout Rooms Work Better,
The Chronicle of Higher Education, Beth McMurtrie, December 2020

University and other technology options for asynchronous collaboration:

• HuksyCT (post content, instructions, links, use groups)
• Discussion board allows students to respond to prompts from instructor and to each other. For best practices for online discussions: https://kb.ecampus.uconn.edu/2016/04/08/developing-engaging-online-discussions/
• Collaborate Ultra
• Google docs

Considerations as you plan to address lab activities:

• Consider moving part of the lab online, such as video demonstrations of new techniques, online simulations, data analysis, or pre/post lab work. Any components of the lab that require the physical lab space may need to wait until access to the lab is restored.
• Investigate online resources and virtual tools to help replicate the lab experience. Video demonstrations of lab or simulations are often available online but so are virtual labs. Many of these are available at little to no cost on homeschooling website, YouTube, or various teaching sites. Also textbook publishers or sites such as Merlot offer materials that may help replace parts of your lab.
• If students will be unable to collect data, consider providing raw data for students to analyze. Videos or live demonstrations of the data collection process can help students to understand how the data was collected.  
• Remember to replicate opportunities for instructors to interact directly or indirectly with the students. If videos of lab components are provided, embed questions into the video. Consider providing discussion prompts or holding online discussions or demonstrations.
• Be aware that students may not have access to all software used in the lab.

Look at virtual lab options

There are a variety of platforms and techniques instructors can explore.

• MERLOT Simulation Collection (California State University)
  The MERLOT collection of Open Educational Resources includes thousands of free simulations on a broad range of topics. The database is searchable by keyword, and each item in the collection provides details including material type, authorship, brief description, peer review rating, and user rating.
  
• ChemCollective (joint project from NSF, Carnegie Mellon, and NSDL)
  Free, online chem lab simulations for topics including Stoichiometry, Thermochemistry, Equilibrium, Acid-Base Chemistry, Solubility, Oxidation/Reduction and Electrochemistry, Analytical Chemistry/Lab Techniques
  
• PhET Interactive Simulations (University of Colorado – Boulder)
  Free online simulations and teaching activities for Physics, Chemistry, Math, Earth Science, and Biology (site has simulations for all grade levels; link takes you to simulations designed for university students)
• Wolfram Demonstrations Project 
  An open-code resource that uses dynamic computation to illuminate concepts in science, technology, mathematics, art, finance and a wide range of other fields. Demonstrations can be used to enliven a classroom, visualize complex concepts or shed new light on cutting-edge ideas from academic and industrial workgroups.

Resource Article:

• How to Quickly (and Safely) Move a Lab Course Online, Chronicle of Higher Education, Heather R. Taft, March 17, 2020

Considerations for meeting accommodations and making resources accessible:

• One of the most common accommodations is extended time, particularly for exams and quizzes. This can be accomplished in HuskyCT for exams and quizzes by adding an exception: https://confluence.uconn.edu/ikb/teaching-and-learning/huskyct/instructor-support/giving-quizzes-and-exams-in-huskyct/how-to-accommodate-extra-test-time-and-or-allow-a-different-test-time
• Ensure all videos and multimedia are accurately captioned. Kaltura offers machine captioning but it will need the instructor to correct for accuracy.
• Provide a transcript for audio files.
• For images, such as pictures, illustrations, and charts, provide meaningful alternative text to convey the purpose.
• Avoid using color or color changes alone to convey meaning.
• Write meaningful link text with links embedded in text describing the link’s destination.
• To learn more about accessibility: https://accessibility.its.uconn.edu/

Resource Article

• Remember Accessibility in the Rush to Online Instruction: 10 Tips for Educators
  National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes, March 12, 2020