Transitioning to Remote Instruction in the Event of an Emergency

For updated college information, visit COVID-19: College Updates

During this time, you may be feeling overwhelmed with the task ahead. Know that you are not alone and that the AIeL team is here to support you with your move to remote instruction. As you consider the task ahead, please keep the following in mind:

First things first

You are not being expected to develop a complete online course. A full online course takes a great deal of time to design and develop, as well as pedagogical preparation for the faculty member. This is a triage situation with different expectations.
Realize that you cannot replicate what you are doing or had planned to do in your face-to-face (f2f) class. Different activities, testing methods, assignments, and more will likely need to be considered and adopted. Be flexible with what you had planned and what you might need to alter in order to help students to learn within this new iteration of the course.
If you haven’t converted much of your instructional materials into an online format yet, it’s okay if document formatting isn’t perfect — at this point, materials just need to be online.
It’s permissible to require students to submit work through email, if that is what works best for you. Whatever method of collection you choose, be sure you understand how to use that tool(s) in order to collect work from students. If you need training or support, let us know we’ll work with you. No matter the method, be sure that you clearly communicate to students how they will need to submit work to you.
Take stock of your own comfort level with the LMS (Blackboard). What do you know how to do? What do you not know how to do? Work within your own comfort zone to get started, but reach out to AIeL for support and review the LLCC Blackboard Support Center for on-demand training.

As you plan your remote instruction

Recognize that not all students will have access to high-speed internet away from campus or their local outreach center. They may only have access to the Internet through their phone. What other plans or deadlines might need to be made to assist those students?
Shift to asynchronous communication and learning as much as possible. Asynchronous will have fewer technical issues and will be easier for students with technology limitations to access than 50-minute live lectures.
Consider how you will provide feedback to students. Will you utilize the discussion board? Will you post general feedback through class announcements? Will you post end of the assignment summaries with your thoughts and feedback to the entire class, or reply to each student submission individually either on the assignment or via email, or will you create a short video reply? How will you return that work to the student?
Start out with low-stakes assignments that require student engagement with the course content and with other students, but that do not have significant impact on their course grades to help students (and yourself) to get familiar with the online domain.
When in doubt, remember the learning outcomes. What are the most important things for your students to learn?

Communication will make the difference

Provide your students with communication expectations and stick to them. Will you respond to email within 24 hours, one working day, after 3 p.m. each day? Will you have online office hours? How will they be delivered? When will they be held? Whatever you determine, remain consistent and be certain to communicate those expectations to students. Consistency in communication will provide them with a sense of comfort.
Encourage students to contact you early with any questions or unique needs they may have during this time.
Use the Blackboard communication tools, especially course announcements and the discussion board to stay in contact with students and keep them motivated to work online.
Send students reminders before each course item is due, as well as the day it’s due. Send the reminders through email and post them as announcements in Blackboard.
If you can make a video, do it. Students will find comfort in seeing and hearing you — however, it is recommended that videos be kept to five minutes or less to accommodate those with limited technology access. A quick mini-lecture or weekly check-in/update video from you posted in the Blackboard announcements will help keep you connected to your students.
AIeL has made an Information for Students Learning Online during COVID-19 website. Please share this link with your students in email or as a post in your Blackboard announcements page.

Blackboard support and resources

Blackboard

Blackboard: Every course at LLCC has a Blackboard shell with current students enrolled. Within Blackboard you can add documents and course materials, develop a discussion board for class discussions, post announcements (and send those announcements as emails), collect assignments and post grades.

LLCC Blackboard Support Center

LLCC Blackboard Support Center: AIeL has developed the Blackboard Support Center to provide you with on-demand resources on the use of Blackboard tools and functions.

Qwickly

Qwickly: Course Tools increases the efficiency of communicating with members of multiple courses and organizations as well as simplifying tasks that need to be done repetitively in each course an instructor teaches.

Ally

Ally: Ally helps you make your Blackboard content more accessible. Ally automatically checks course materials against WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, Ally provides students with accessible alternative formats such as audio and electronic braille. Ally also provides guidance to instructors to improve accessibility of their course content. Information on the use of Ally for faculty can be found on the Ally for LMS Help for Instructors page. To get started, use the Ally Quick Guide or check out the Ally page in the Blackboard Support Center.

Working With Multimedia

Tutorials are provided below on using media with Blackboard for remote instruction.

Technology tools to support your remote instruction

Zoom

Zoom is a video-conferencing platform that allows you to engage in live Web conversations with your students using audio, video, and text-based chat features. You can set up a free account with Zoom and send your students a link to your conference session. Zoom has a very helpful support center as well as a great.

Padlet

Padlet is an online platform where faculty and students can share ideas, images, and videos. Padlet is very easy to use and will add an element of visual learning and engagement to your class. Padlet can also be used to support group or individual work and provides a quick and easy way to give feedback to students. LLCC has a Padlet license and has been integrated with our o365 login, no account set up needed. Simply go to https://llcc.padlet.org and select “Log in with Microsoft.” Next, enter your LLCC username and password. You should now be ready to make your first Padlet wall. For additional resources on using Padlet:

FlipGrid

FlipGrid is a social learning tool and great way to support video discussions with one student or the whole class. You can use FlipGrid for class discussions, office hours, presentations and more. FlipGrid is a free service to educators. This video discussion platform allows instructors to easily collect student video responses from anywhere using their web browser or mobile device.

LLCC has already integrated FlipGrid with our o365 login, no account set up needed. To begin using FlipGrid, go to https://info.flipgrid.com/ and click on the Educator Login link in the upper righthand corner of the page. At the next screen select Microsoft Login and login using your LLCC username and password.FlipGrid’s Getting Started page offers 30 minute webinars with open registration and an on-demand online workshop for those who want to start using FlipGrid quickly.

Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that can be used online to introduce new topics, revise content, and encourage teamwork. With Kahoot you can create fun learning games in minutes or choose from millions of existing games to introduce a topic, review and reinforce knowledge. During the current COVID19 outbreak, Kahoot is offering free access to Kahoot Premium for all K12 schools and higher education institutions. Click here to get access to Premium for K-12 schools or higher education, select the higher education link and select “sign up with Microsoft.” Then login with your LLCC username and password. You’ll be up a running with Kahoot! In no time.

Remind

Remind is a communication platform build to improve engagement and faculty to student communication. Remind provides two-way communication for notifications, instructions and more. Remind allows for free account activation.

Using Microsoft Teams to support instruction

With Microsoft Office and Teams, you can schedule a meeting with your class. A meeting will allow you to interact with your students with audio, video, chat via text, and share your desktop, a specific window or document (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with others. Below are instructions provided by LLCC IT office on how to use Teams for instruction.
For more information on using Teams at LLCC please go to: http://lincin.llcc.edu/?p=638102.

Library content resources

LLCC Open Educational Resources (OER) LibGuide – The “Using Filtering Tools to Identify OER’s” tab is especially helpful!
Kanopy LibGuide – Kanopy is a new streaming video service for faculty to use to enrich their course teachings. This link will provide you with more information about the resource and the basics of using the resource.
Kanopy Guide for Students – This link can be shared with your students, and will explain how to authenticate into Kanopy from an off-campus location.
Virtual Copyright Office Hours – For higher education librarians, including at college, research, community college, and special libraries, with questions about supporting rapidly shifting in-person instruction and research to remote, library copyright experts are offering informational office hours via Zoom.

Additional thoughts

Be kind to yourself and your students. Know that everyone is facing stress right now — including you.
Explain to students why you are doing things the way you are doing right now. In times of turmoil, students will appreciate the thought and transparency.
Keep a record of what you are doing, as you are spending great time and effort providing a service to students during an uncertain time. If you are in a position in which you need to report this information, you will have created data.

Resources and additional reading

This page will continue to evolve with new information added regularly. Please check back periodically for updates.

Last Updated: November 11, 2020 | 10:55 a.m. CDT