Here are some quick tips and tutorials to help you put together a plan for teaching your class remotely and staying in touch with your students in the event you cannot get to campus due to snow. Be sure to notify your dean’s office that you are choosing this option.
- Do you want to send a message to all your students?
- Do you want to have your students read an article or watch a video?
- Do you want to have a place for your students to talk to each other and collaborate?
- Do you want to hold a class remotely during its normal day and time?
- Do you want to share a narrated demonstration from your computer with your students?
Do you want to send a message to all your students?
Use the Announcements tool in Canvas
Announcements allow you to communicate with your students in just one post. You’ll be able to send one announcement that will go out to all the students enrolled in your class.
How-to: Make an Announcement in Canvas
Tips for ensuring the Announcements tool is effective:
- Send out a test message and request a response from each student to ensure that you can reach all students in your course.
- If students do not have access to Canvas off campus, work with them individually to find a way in which you can contact them. For some students, this may be a home or cell phone number that you will keep confidential, for others it may be the email address of a friend.
Do you want to have your students read an article or watch a video?
Create an Assignment in Canvas
If you would like your students to read an article or watch a video, the best way to have them do this is to create an assignment in Canvas. Within the assignment, you can upload the reading or video link so that they can access it.
How-to:
Do you want to have a place for your students to talk to each other and collaborate?
Create a Discussion Forum in Canvas
Creating a discussion forum will allow students to participate in conversations and collaborate together in the online environment. Additionally, you can attach videos or articles for students to read or watch within the discussion forum, so they can comment back and forth with each other on the content you provide.
For example: Assign your students a reading and have a discussion about it using an insightful discussion prompt.
How to:
Create a Discussion Forum in Canvas
Add Content to Discussion Forums in Canvas
Managing Discussion Forums in Canvas
Do you want to hold a class remotely during its normal day and time?
If you’d like to host an online meeting with your students to hold class or have students do online presentations synchronously, you have a few options:
Use Google Meet
- Add a meeting to your Google Calendar and invite all of your students.
- In the meeting settings, Choose “Add Conferencing” and then choose Google Meet
- Students will get a link to join the google meeting and there is also a phone number that they can call into with a pin
Use the Big Blue Button Conference tool in Canvas
Host a virtual conference within the Canvas interface where you and your students can see each other and present information.
Basic Requirements:
- A computer with an Internet connection with a webcam (optional) for all participants.
- A microphone for you (instructor) if you plan to capture sound input (e.g. your voice). It’s recommended that students also utilize a microphone, but not a requirement.
- Speakers or headsets (for all participants).
How-to:
Create a Conference using Big Blue Button
Start a Conference using Big Blue Button
Use the Big Blue Button Interface
Do you want to share a narrated demonstration from your computer with your students?
Record your computer screen using screencast-o-matic or a similar screen recording tool.
Screencast-o-matic will record a video of your screen with you talking over top. You can record a Powerpoint, but you can record anything that you have on your screen as well. While there are other products, screencast-o-matic has a free level (with a watermark) and is very easy to use.
https://screencast-o-matic.com/