Distribute Course Materials and Readings

You will likely need to provide additional course materials to support your changing plans, from updated schedules to readings that allow you to shift more – or all – instruction online. In a pinch, providing some new readings and related assignments may be your best bet for keeping the intellectual momentum of the course moving.

Considerations when posting new course materials:

Make sure students know when new material is posted: If you post new materials in Canvas or another shared resource (e.g., Box or OneDrive), be sure to inform students and provide a link to the content. You might even ask that they change their notification preferences to alert them when new materials are posted. For Canvas, refer them to How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as a student?
Keep things accessible & mobile friendly: In a technologically enhanced classroom environment, many students may need to access materials on a mobile device, so make sure you are using mobile-friendly formats including PDFs and Canvas Pages. Consider saving other files in two formats–its original application format and a PDF. PDFs are easier to read on phones and tablets and keep the file size small, and original file format often have application features that are helpful to students who use accessibility software. Also note that videos take lots of bandwidth, so only require them if you are confident students will have access to them during the current situation. Also consider having all your resources available online during the first few weeks of class since everyone may not have their course materials yet.
- Here are a number of library resource guides for accessing online materials for your course:

https://libguides.tulane.edu/TeachAnywhere

https://libguides.tulane.edu/electronicbooks

Maintain student engagement: In order to maintain and encourage student engagement with the content, frequent, lower-stakes assessments can be used, such as short reflection pieces, reading synopses, discussion boards, etc.

Consider these suggestions when planning learning activities:

Link to clear goals and outcomes: Make sure there are clear purposes and outcomes for any student-to-student interaction. Define how this activity helps students meet course outcomes or prepare for other assignments.
Use asynchronous tools for engagement: Having students participate in live Zoom conversations can be useful but gathering an entire class in a Zoom room can be difficult, and only a few students will actively participate (just like in your classroom). In such cases, using asynchronous tools like Canvas Discussions allows students to participate on their own schedules. In addition, bandwidth requirements for discussion boards are far lower than for live video tools.
Build in simple accountability: Find ways to make sure students are accountable for the work they do in any online discussions or collaborations. Assigning points for online discussion posts can be tedious, so some instructors ask for reflective statements where students detail their contributions and reflect on what they learned from the conversation.
Balance newness and need: As with any changed activities, you will need to balance the needs and benefits of online communication and collaboration with the additional effort it will require on everyone’s part. Learning new technologies and procedures might be counterproductive, particularly in the short term, unless there is a clear benefit.