Today I told my students my plan for the #Coronavirus outbreak. First, if you feel sick (esp fever), stay home. As long as you email me in advance, I will let you make up anything without a doctors note. 1/
Second, if you need to self-quarantine for medical reasons (immunodeficiency or other reasons), you can finish the course entirely online. Email me. 2/
Third, if I get sick the class will be entirely online. 3/
Having said all that, I am in the privileged position of having my entire class already prepped to teach online. I teach this class f2f during the year, and online in the summer. 4/
I know many of you are scrambling to generate online content. I have a few thoughts about how to do that efficiently and effectively. 5/
Skip the video lectures. MAYBE do one a week (5-10 minutes TOPS) so your students know you’re not a bot. Keep in mind that most VLs are boring and they won’t learn well from them. 6/
No need to reinvent the wheel. Use short YouTube videos to explain class concepts. Chances are someone has already done it, and done it better, than you can. #noshade 7/
Find readings that discuss academic research in everyday language. @ConversationUS is particularly good for this. 8/
Discussion boards can keep students engaged but shouldn’t be over-used. Maybe every other week. 9/
Online quizzes are good but are time-consuming to create. If you’re switching your course to online quickly, you probably won’t have time to write meaningful questions. Maybe short reflection essays on the readings? Depends on class size. 10/
If your LMS allows, create small groups of students who can have more intimate discussions that may help with their isolation. Even in large classes this can be easy depending on the LMS. 11/
Here’s another good resource! chronicle.com/article/Going-…
And another resource! tech.msu.edu/about/guidelin…
Colleagues have reminded me to remember accessibility for students when creating online content. er.educause.edu/articles/2017/…
