Updates and Key Resources
Keep Teaching
Visit the University's Keep Teaching site for a full range of resources to support instructors and students in the transition to online teaching and learning.
Teaching and Learning Transformation Center
Visit the University's Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC) to access resources supporting online instructional design, best practices for online teaching and learning, and view the list of upcoming webinars.
Secure your Zoom meetings
Avoid situations where unauthorized users join your Zoom meetings and share malicious content by following this guide to change settings.
Comply with Maryland law on recordings
The State of Maryland requires all-party consent before it is permissible to record communications. This is applicable to any recording you are making that captures the audio or video of someone in addition to yourself (i.e. recording a Zoom discussion session with students). Follow this guide to protecting student privacy while using audio-recording technologies.
Mass communicating with students
Recommended: Canvas Announcements
- Announcements are created and sent through Canvas - students can also receive announcements on their devices or through email if they have set this up
- Automatically sends to all students enrolled in the section/course - no need to create separate mailing lists of your students
- Student comments can be enabled - allows students to ask clarifying questions in the announcement rather than emailing the instructor
Recommended: Canvas Conversations
- Similar to email, but fully contained with Canvas
- Can send to individual students enrolled in the section/course, or all students
Alternative: Coursemail List with UMD Gmail
- An email reflector can be created that automatically includes all students
- Can use this email reflector to send to all students in the section/course through your UMD Gmail account
Distributing documents and readings
Recommended: Canvas Files
- The file area allows documents, presentations, images, PDF files, and media to be uploaded and stored within a Canvas course space
- The file area can be hidden from student view (and the files can still be shared through other tools in Canvas such as announcements) or you can share the entire file area with students
- Keeps all of your course content within a single area for easier access by students
Alternative: Google Drive
- A folder can be created within your UMD Google Drive space for your course, share it with students, and upload documents to the folder
Collecting student work submissions
Recommended: Canvas Assignments
- Assignments can be created within the Canvas course space and include instructions for the activity/task and the ability to submit documents
- Assignments can be assigned to groups of students to complete, or assigned for students to complete individually
- Documents submitted for an assignment can be viewed online within Canvas, and comments can be given directly on the document within Canvas for students to view
Alternative: UMD Google Drive
- A folder can be created within your UMD Google Drive space, it can be shared with students, and they can be directed to upload documents to it
Facilitating class discussions
Recommended: Canvas Discussions
- Appropriate for discussions that do not need to occur in real-time, but in which students can participate over a set period of time (e.g. a discussion of the week’s readings)
- Discussions can be created within the Canvas course space, and content (e.g. text, links, files, and images) can be included to prompt the discussion
- Discussions can be set-up to be graded or ungraded
- Discussions can be assigned to all students within a section/course, or can be assigned as group discussions (only students within the group can see the other group members’ discussion)
Recommended: Google Hangouts
- Appropriate for discussions that need to occur in real-time
- Using the chat-only feature of Google Hangouts (and not the video chat), group conversations of up to 150 people can be created
- In chat-only mode, text-to-speech readers can be used
- Any student with a Gmail email account (hence all students, as their TerpMail accounts work) can participate
Delivering lectures asynchronously
NOTE: Asynchronous delivery (where it is pre-recorded and posted for students to watch, as opposed to having students join a live web stream) is strongly recommended by campus due to:
- Concerns about overwhelming the Webex and Zoom system capacity if large numbers of courses attempt live web streams
- Concerns about accessibility - both students’ access to internet connections that support live webstreams, and captioning of lectures (Panopto provides automatic captioning services)
Recommended: Panopto Recordings
- Panopto allows you to create a recording of you delivering a lecture and share that recording via Canvas so that students can view it
- The recording can capture you speaking into your webcam, narrating over your slides or other content displayed on your screen as you navigate through, or both
Alternative: Distributing lecture slides/content
- Documents containing lectures slides/content can be shared with students via the options listed above in “Distributing documents and readings” (i.e. UMD Google Drive, UMD Gmail)
Hosting live (synchronous) sessions
NOTE: Asynchronous delivery (where it is pre-recorded and posted for students to watch, as opposed to having students join a live webstream) is strongly recommended by campus to address concerns about system bandwidth and accessibility
Possible tool: Zoom
- Zoom allows you to host live meetings where students can connect via computer or phone
- Meetings can be set up to be audio only (for both the instructor and students); for the instructor to share video as well as audio; or for everyone to share both audio and video
- The instructor can share their screen during the session to allow presentation of slides, websites, etc.
- Meetings can be recorded to be shared after the session
- Zoom is integrated into Canvas, allowing meetings to be accessed by students from within the Canvas course space
Possible tool: Webex
- Similar features as Zoom
Hosting office hours
Recommended (for audio sessions): Phone
- If on-campus with access to office phone, can provide phone for students
- If off-campus, can enable call forwarding from your office phone so that you can provide students your office number but receive the call on a phone you have access to
Recommended (for audio or video sessions): Zoom
- Can host a live meeting with individual students
- Meetings can be set up to be audio only, or both audio and video
- If the meeting is set up to be both audio and video, the instructor can share their screen to allow presentation of slides, websites, etc.
- NOTE: To maintain confidentiality of office hours, passwords should be used so that other people cannot connect to the meeting
Recommended (for audio or video sessions): Webex
- Can host a live meeting with individual students
- Meetings can be set up to be audio only, or both audio and video
- If the meeting is set up to be both audio and video, the instructor can share their screen to allow presentation of slides, websites, etc.
- If setup via the Canvas course space, it is possible to offer appointment slots for which students can sign-up for
Recommended (for audio or video sessions): Google Hangouts and Google Meets
- Can host a live meeting with individual students
- Meetings can be set up to be audio only, or both audio and video
- If the meeting is set up to be both audio and video, the instructor can share their screen to allow presentation of slides, websites, etc.
- Hosting an audio and/or video session via Google Hangouts and Google Meet provides the option to automatically close-caption the session in real-time - this is very useful for students who have accessibility concerns about audio modalities
Recommended (for text/chat only sessions): Google Hangouts
- Google Hangouts can be conducted in a “Conversation” mode, where you can text-based chat in real time
- Useful tool if there are system capacity issues or accessibility needs (will work with computer/mobile device text-to-voice functions)
Assessing student learning
Recommended: Canvas Assignments
- Assignments can be created within the Canvas course space and include instructions for the activity/task and the ability to submit documents
- Assignments can be assigned to groups of students to complete, or assigned for students to complete individually
- Documents submitted for an assignment can be viewed online within Canvas, and comments can be given directly on the document within Canvas for students to view
- Both instructors and teaching assistants can review, and provide grades and feedback to students entirely within the Canvas course space
Recommended: Canvas Quizzes
- Quizzes can be created and completed within the Canvas course space
- Quizzes can be graded or ungraded
- Formats can include multiple choice, true/false, fill in the blank(s), open answer, and file upload in response to a prompt
- Students can be given a time limit to complete the quiz
- Questions can be shuffled, only shown one at a time, and correct answers not shown, to address academic integrity issues
Recommended: Panopto recordings
- Students can record themselves giving a presentation, and submit this to the instructor for assessment
- Students can record themselves with audio-only, video and audio, or audio narration over a slide presentation or other content that is displayed on their computer monitor
Recommended: Zoom
- Instructors can set up Zoom meetings with individual students, or groups of students, and allow the student(s) to share their screen to give a presentation
- Student presentations can be recorded