Providing Flexibility
During an emergency, our students are facing a vartiety of difficulties. By including flexibility in your activities and assignments, you will demonstrate your understanding of students’ individuality, your focus on the course outcomes and student success, and that will benefit all students.
Flexible Due Dates
Use flexible due dates. In emergencies, consider shifting or extending due dates to provide ample time for completing assignments.
Flexible Late Policy
Reconsider adn adjust or potentially remove the course late policy.
Restructuring Your Activities and Assignments
Consider reducing the work load for students in cases of emergencies. Some assignments or activities could be changed from required to optional.
If you’re using weighted assignment groups in Canvas, you can create a group with 0% weight and put all optional assignments in that group.
Take a moment to consider what is essential for students to do to achieve the course outcomes.
Moving In-Person Activities to Online
In times of emergencies, it is best to avoid introducing new teaching and learning tools as students can already be experiencing cognitive overload.
However, if needed, below are some possible options. Be sure to provide practice assignments before using any new tools for high-stakes assignments or assessments.
Student-to-Student Interaction on a Text Document
In-person discussions can easily be moved online using the Canvas Discussion board.
For reading activities involving websites or journal articles, use Hypothesis to have students annotate together. Set up is easy! See Create a Hypothesis Assignment in Canvas.
Share the student guide: Introduction to Hypothesis for Students.
Options for Online Speaking Activities
Create a Panopto Assignment requiring students to record themselves speaking. Only the instructor will have access to view these videos.
For more interaction, create a Canvas Discussion so other students can comment or ask questions on the videos.
Instructions: [Important!] First, Create a Panopto Assignment Folder. Then, select “Text Entry” for the submission type. Direct students to use the plug icon at the top of the textbox and select Panopto. Students can upload pre-recorded video or audio files or record directly in Panopto.
Share the student guide: How to Submit a Video Assignment in Canvas.
Adobe Podcast Assignment
Create an Adobe Podcast Assignment. Students must first request access to Adobe Creative Cloud.
Adobe Education Exchange has a huge amount of lesson plans ready for you to use. If they don’t already have access to Adobe Creative Cloud, they can request access. Students can collaborate using the “invite guest” button. Though they will have to be online at the same time.
Share the student guide: How to Record an Adobe Podcast.
Academic Integrity Tips
Communicate about your Academic Integrity Policy
Link to your syllabus to reinforce your Academic Integrity policy and AI policy. If you don’t have one already, use the AI Policy Builder. Your upfront communication goes a long way.
Monitoring Students During Online Exams
For quizzes and exams, consider using LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor.
It’s highly recommended to do a practice quiz so studetns can download the software and become comfortable with the tool.
If you’re using Respondus Monitor, and you are allowing the use of iPads, make sure to change the advanced settings [pdf] to allow ipads.
Share the student resource: Introduction to Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor [pdf] and Taking a Quiz on Respondus (including the download link).
