Need to move your class online with minimal notice? Follow the advice below to adapt quickly.

Part of Penn GSE's COVID-19 Response

Establish priorities

The primary goal is that courses happening during this time period go on successfully, with a focus on meeting the learning objectives you’ve established in your syllabus. Keep it simple and continue to be flexible. 

Begin with a self-assessment

What do you do in class now? What is most important to replicate? What have you been doing so far this term outside of class hours that works well? How can you lean into that more? Set aside any assumptions you might have about online learning, and don’t expect to learn it all. Already feel like you’re prepared to migrate instruction, or this is already part of how you teach? Wonderful! If you have something that works for you, stick with it.  

Learning to adapt: You have options

Format your courses

Start by thinking about the format of your in-person class. Is it:  

1. Large lecture?
2. Seminar with lots of discussion?
3. A course with lots of small group work?
4. An all-weekend executive format intensive?

How you adapt will depend some on the format, and what translates well to the online environment. But the bottom line is this: This needs to work for you. What do you need to do to meet your instructional goals? You might consider:  

• Hosting virtual office hours. 
• Taking the opportunity to invite in guest speakers who can join in a video conference. 
• If you’re aiming for synchronous instruction, getting an inventory of the time zones from which your students will be participating. 
• Moving to asynchronous modes of delivery for your remaining course material and assessments, such as pre-recorded lectures and discussion boards through Canvas. If you and your students are in different time zones, the scheduled meeting time of their courses may now be in the middle of the night. Asynchronous delivery reduces the need for real-time instructional technology support for both faculty and students.
• Designating a student to monitor the group chat during a virtual class. 
• Have a 15-person seminar? Split up into 5 small groups and spend half an hour meeting with each group of 3 for a discussion. Mix up who’s in what group next week. 
• Reconsidering proctored exams. Adapt your material into a take-home, open book exam instead.

Plan first, then communicate with your students 

What’s your plan for Day 1? How might you need to adapt your syllabus? How are you shifting your priorities? Once you’ve developed a plan for the remainder of the term, communicate with your students. Let them know what to expect, and then engage them in the learning process. You also might consider polling your students to take an inventory of their learning needs and priorities. If you plan to survey your students, make sure you are using a University-sponsored tool such as Qualtrics to collect student information.  

Some things you might want to communicate

• Remind students that they should be ready to appear on camera.
• Have students sign in to BlueJeans or Zoom 5 to 10 minutes before class to make sure that their technology works.
• Ask them to turn their VIDEO ON and to MUTE their AUDIO.
• Tell them that you will be recording the session before you click Start Recording. You might also mention this in the email that you send with meeting details.
• Ask them to submit questions in chat as their questions arise.
• Ask a student to volunteer to monitor chat and share questions with you (if you don’t have a TA or co-instructor).
• Remind students to UNMUTE themselves when they speak (HINT: While on mute, hold down the space bar to temporarily unmute. When done speaking, release the space bar to mute again.)

Stay nimble, please 

Unless you’re used to this, you will not transform your in-person course into perfect online pedagogy in a week. That’s ok. Reassure your students of the same. We’re all pulling together as a community of learners. Be ready to adapt, and we’ll continue to do our best to adapt our staff and administrative support along with you. Remember that approved accommodations through Student Disability Services still apply, and make sure you're doing your best to meet student needs.   

Find the bright sides, keep it positive. Remember that good teaching is good teaching, and that you’re here to provide your students with the most positive learning experience possible under sudden extenuating circumstances.  

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