Online Teaching and Learning
27 Convert Face-to-Face Activities to Remote
Jennifer Smith
Identify and Adjust
Your assignments are where the rubber meets the road as far as learning goes. Lectures, readings, and other course content provide the foundation. The course activities help students make sense of new concepts and connect them with previous learning. Your face-to-face assignments and activities may work just fine in a remote-teaching setting. But most often, some adjustment and even re-thinking is needed.
- Identify what you expect students to get out of the assignment or activity
- List the steps you have students follow in the face-to-face course
- Determine how you can get the same result with the available online tools
- Add any additional steps that will be needed online
List Current Activities and Expected Learning
It can be helpful to make a list of the activities you currently use in your course.
- Next to each item, describe what you expect students to learn from the activity
- Focus on what the assignment needs to DO
- The following types of activities are commonly used in remote teaching:
Online Adjustments
The tricky part about shifting to a remote environment is that things may take a bit more time. There may also be a learning curve as students become familiar with digital tools. You may not realize how many steps it takes to complete a task in the face-to-face setting because everyone is in the same room so you can quickly answer questions.
- Hold students accountable for the pre-class reading or other preparation by providing a quiz or worksheet.
- Suggest a process or framework students can use to compete the task.
- Provide a “warm up” activity so that students can try out the process.
- If you will be using document-sharing or other technology such as GoogleDocs or Office 365 provide a low- or no-points assignment for students to try it out before class.
- Provide students with an outline or other “starter” Google document by creating a “force copy” link.
- Students can submit the link to their collaborative document into a group Canvas Assignment.
- If you are using Zoom breakouts, students can ask questions using the “Ask for Help” button .
- It takes a bit of time to move students in and out of Zoom breakout rooms (save time by preassigning students to groups).
- Don’t skip having the groups report on their completion of the task.
- Ask about the content covered through the activity within the next assessment (this supports long-term memory as well as demonstrating the importance of the topic).
Example
The following table suggests additional steps or information that might be needed for a small group discussion in an online setting.
Small Group Discussion Comparison
| Step | Face-to-face | Online |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Case analysis methodology is modeled in lecture. | Case analysis methodology is modeled in lecture (may be pre-recorded). |
| 2 | A case is provided to students in Canvas. | |
| 3 | Students read the case during class. | Students read the case before class. |
| 4 | (During class) Individually, students use the case analysis worksheet, students identify the key points and use them to draw a conclusion. | (Before class) Individually, students use the case analysis worksheet, students identify the key points and use them to draw a conclusion. |
| 5 | (Before class) Individually, students use their worksheet to answer questions in a Canvas Quiz (due before the Zoom class meeting time) | |
| 6 | (During class) Students divide into groups to compare their individual conclusions and combine ideas. | (During class) Students divide into groups (Zoom breakouts) to compare their individual conclusions and combine ideas. |
| 7 | (During Class) Each group identifies a spokesperson (this role rotates to a different student each week) | (During Class) Each group identifies a spokesperson (this role rotates to a different student each week) |
| 8 | (Full class) each spokesperson is called upon to share their conclusion. | (Full class) Students are brought back into the main room where each spokesperson is called upon to share their conclusion. |
| (Full class) Instructor highlights insights and ideas for further thought. | (Full class) Instructor highlights insights and ideas for further thought. |