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Teaching Continuity Guide for Remote Instruction

In the event of a disruptive event that prompts the campus to move classes online, this guide will help you transition your face-to-face instruction to distance-delivered (or remote) instruction in the simplest way possible to ensure continuity of your face-to-face class. This guide is not intended to help you create or teach a distance education (DE) course, provide a definitive list of technology resources, nor reflect pedagogical best practices. Quality DE courses require intentional design and development. (Refer to Leeward’s DE Guidelines. If you’re interested in teaching a DE class, please contact the EMC.) Those already teaching DE courses should continue teaching as they normally do and may refer to the DE information and resources for instructors for additional guidance.

  1. Check-in with your division for what the college’s and your division’s plans are for transitioning classes online during a disruptive event.
  2. Prepare for remote access.
    1. Do you have a computer or laptop and Internet access? (Check with your division if you need a laptop.)
    2. Do you have earbuds, headphones, or a headset with a microphone or a built-in microphone on your computer/laptop for online lectures or recording videos?
    3. (Optional) Do you have a webcam (on your computer/laptop) for online lectures or recording videos?
  3. Update your syllabus and course schedule.
    1. Include a statement that your syllabus and course schedule may be modified and updated during the emergency.
    2. Include information about how class will be conducted, how you and students will be communicating and expected response time, technology skills and minimum technology requirements, and netiquette. (Refer to Netiquette Tips for Instructors for considerations. Related: Student Netiquette Quick Guide.)
    3. Upload your syllabus and course schedule file(s) to Laulima Resources. Create a folder called “Syllabus” [How-to] and upload your file(s) to the folder. [How-to]
    4. Notify your students about the change in the syllabus by sending a Laulima Announcement (with “high priority”) or emailing.
  4. Check your UH Gmail (@hawaii.edu) email account regularly (daily). Remind your students to check their @hawaii.edu email accounts daily, too.
  5. Review the Leeward CC Baseline Recommended Actions for Distance-Delivered Instruction of recommended actions (including tips and examples) to enact as a contingency for distance-delivered (remote) instruction.
  6. Prepare for remote instruction by reviewing the instructions below.

Remember, this guide is to help quickly transition face-to-face instruction to distance-delivered (or remote) instruction usually for a temporary time due to a disruptive event. This is not intended to be used as a guide to transform your face-to-face class into a DE class. In this situation, you’ll want to try to keep things to how you normally do in the classroom, but now accessed online. Also, we recommend using UH sponsored tools (i.e. Laulima, UH Google Apps) to get the support you and your students might need from UH ITS. [Request Laulima help] [Request UH Google help]

Communication

Communication will be extremely important when you are not able to see and talk with your students in-person. The following tools can help you to maintain regular dialogue and communication with your students. Click on the tool’s name below to learn what it is and the “How-to” link for steps on how to use it.

Distributing and Delivering Course Content

Focus on your learning outcomes to prioritize what materials you will need to make electronic to distribute or deliver online. Paper-based course materials can be made electronic by scanning to PDF. Course content such as lectures and demos can be delivered synchronously (i.e. in-live-time) through web conferencing or asynchronously (i.e. not-in-live-time) through recorded videos. Click on the tool’s name below to learn what it is and the “How-to” link for steps on how to use it.

  • Course materials
    • Scan paper-based materials to PDF
      • If your course materials are not in digital form, scan them to PDF at our Copy Center (bring a flash drive or one will be provided for you) or check with your division’s office
      • As a last resort, use your mobile device to scan using the (free) Adobe Scan app [How-to]
    • Create folders in Laulima Resources to organize files [How-to] and upload your files [How-to]. Or, use UH Google Drive if you’re familiar with using it for organizing and sharing folders and files.
    • Alternatively, email files as attachments to students using Laulima Announcements [How-to] or UH Gmail [How-to].
  • Lecture online
    • You can deliver your lectures “in-live-time,” but synchronously (i.e. “in-live-time” online) using a web conferencing platform such as Zoom [How-to]. Request a UH Zoom account from UH ITS.
  • Record video lectures or mini lectures for students to watch on their own time

Activities and Assessments

Focus on your learning outcomes to prioritize what activities and assessments students need to do. There are many tools in Laulima for students to do their activities and assessments online. UH Google Docs is another option especially for collaborative assignments. The following are just a few basic tools to get started with. Click on the tool’s name below to learn what it is and the “How-to” link for steps on how to use it.

Grades

Keep students informed of their progress/grades by adding the Gradebook Classic tool to your Laulima site [How-to]. Then, set up your gradebook [How-to].

You can manually add gradebook items [How-to], but conveniently, several tools in Laulima such as Assignments and Tests & Quizzes associate to the Gradebook. When you are creating your assignments, quizzes, etc. in those tools, look for the setting to add/associate the entry to the Gradebook. When you go to Gradebook you’ll notice those entries are highlighted in yellow and will say something like “from Assignments”. When you do your grading and commenting, instead of going to the Gradebook tool, go to the particular tool (like Assignments) to grade. Then, in Gradebook, you’ll see that those scores and comments are automatically inputted.

A couple of recommendations:

  • When you are grading, input zero scores for students who didn’t submit. By default, Laulima puts a dash for any scores that haven’t been inputted or recorded. A “dash” score does not count against the student’s course grade. In other words, if the student submitted nothing and just had dashes, he/she would see that they are getting 100% A for their course grade.
  • Allow students to see what their current course grade is throughout the semester. Click on “Course Grade Options” tab and checkmark “Display course grades to students now”. (Remember to input the zero scores as assignments past due and as you grade them so their course grade most accurately reflects where they stand.)

You may also be interested in watching the full video tutorial on using Gradebook Classic.

Leeward Quick-Start Laulima Template

We’ve designed a Laulima course site template as a quick-start for you to populate with your course content, activities, and assessments that utilizes the Laulima tools mentioned above. And (as a bonus), the Laulima Lessons tool [How-to] to help you present and gather all of your course content, activities, and assignments in one organized page by week, like a course schedule.

  • Request a copy of the template to be imported into your course site(s).

In addition to the tutorials linked above for you to do on your own, the EMC Instructional Designers, DE Liaisons, and your Division Chairs and colleagues are available to help you. We also hosted several workshops to get you started that go along with this guide and offer one-on-one assistance as explained below.

Workshops

While these workshops have passed, please refer to the recordings or related resources.

  • Updating and Posting Your Syllabus and Course Schedule to Laulima [See item #3 on the Checklist tab.]
  • Conversations on Online Assessment Strategies [View doc]

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