Featured image photo by Victoria Heath on Unsplash
As universities and colleges across the country shift classes online, we are seeing a surge in open resources supporting this online teaching. At the University of Oklahoma, we drew on the open resources developed by Indiana University, Stanford, and several other schools to build our own version of “Teach Anywhere.“
The main site, built largely by Adam Croom and Aaron Biggs, provides contingency support. You can find information there about OU’s response plan for COVID-19 along with technical guidance for faculty to continue teaching even while classrooms are closed. Here’s a preview of some of those resources:
- guidance on accessibility
- link for latest updates on the University’s response to COVID-19
- pedagogical advice for moving a course online
- best practices
- help with instructional technology like Canvas and Zoom
Video Series
To further support faculty in the shift into online teaching, I’ve been working with Keegan Long-Wheeler to put together a series of videos and workshops on Canvas and Zoom. The support documentation from both companies is very good, but we wanted to provide OU with contextualized guides to setting up both systems for their classes.
We are building out six videos. This video series walks faculty through Canvas from start to finish. I will post the links as we get them back from captioning:
Introduction to Canvas
Communication in Canvas
Organizing Material in Canvas
Teaching Online with Zoom
Workshops
In addition to the videos, Keegan and I will be teaching workshops on online teaching over the next few weeks. With the Norman campus closed, we will be leading all of these sessions on Zoom. The “Teach Anywhere Workshops” will walk faculty through pedagogical tips for teaching online along with technical tips for using Canvas and Zoom. The “Teach Anywhere with Zoom” workshops will focus more narrowly on Zoom and pedagogy.
Teach Anywhere Workshop
Teach Anywhere with Zoom
- Friday March 13, 10-11am
- Friday March 13, 1-2pm
- Monday March, 16 3-4pm
- Wednesday March 18, 10-11am
- Thursday March 19, 10-11am
Teach Anywhere with Zoom (Online)
Further Resources
As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of great resources that have come together over the last week or so. Many schools have built guides that are contextualized for their faculty, and there are also general tips and information. Some of the best and most important resources have focused on accessibility:
Accessibility
- OU Teach Anywhere’s guide to Accessibility
- Kate Sonka at Michigan State is a rock star for all things Accessibility. Here’s MSU’s Basic Checklist: Online Content Accessibility
- Aimi Hamraie’s Accessible Teaching in the Time of COVID-19
Twitter threads from experienced online teachers
Resource Collections
- Jenae Cohn and Beth Seltzer at Stanford have organized a guide for online teaching that serves as a great model for other schools
- Here’s a seemingly comprehensive list of University websites compiled by Daniel Stanford, the Director of Faculty Development and Technology Innovation in DePaul University’s Center for Teaching and Learning
- Sarah Howard from Ohio State University has spearheaded a crowd-sourced guide to “Advising in Times of Disruption“
- The Online Learning Consortium put together an extensive collection of resources from across the Higher Ed spectrum
- A community system for faculty and online teaching folks: https://keep-teaching-resources-for-higher-ed.mn.co/feed
- Here’s a guide for getting your course online in an hour
