For Lectures / Larger Courses → Lecture Video. Homework Quiz. Live Q&A Sessions.
In a lecture-based class, the instructor will typically prepare lecture slides and a handful of check-in activities with students to ensure that everyone is making sense of the content. After class, students may have practice sets or other homework to complete. Students in larger classes may also have the opportunity to attend office hours ask questions and go over challenging material.
How would this class format work online? Consider this possible model as a place to start:
Lecture Video. Homework Quiz. Live Q&A Sessions.
- Create a Content Area in Blackboard. You could label this "Activities by Class" or "Required Readings." Either way, make sure to name the content area in a way that its contents are easily recognizable to students. Create folders in the content area for each class meeting. Outline clearly for students the specific steps they will need to complete the activities in the class meeting. What will the need to watch? Read? Complete? Submit? Discuss? Etc.
- Build your video lectures using the Record feature in Zoom to create a video in which you talk over your lecture slides. Add a link to the recorded video in the corresponding content folder for the class meeting (step 1). A couple of important tips for making educational videos:
- In general, breaking up a longer lecture into several videos of no more than 10 minutes long is a good idea. It is both easier for you to produce as the instructor, and easier for your students to watch. Longer videos with no breaks between are just not as effective.
- Consider adding captions to your video to make it even more accessible to students. Captions can be edited as well.
- For a more detailed treatment of the research on effective educational videos, check out this teaching guide on the topic.
- Create quizzes as check-ins. If there are typically independent homework assignments after the lecture, giving students a way to check in and make sure that they are progressing on the homework can be useful. Create a short, low-stakes quiz after each homework assignment and then add a combination of True/False, multiple choice, and other objective questions to ensure that your students are getting what they need from the homework assignment. For this type of quiz, err on the side of shorter and lower stakes. This is not a test of student knowledge, just a check-in to let the instructor and student see progress.
- Finally, set up a virtual classroom using a Zoom or Blackboard Collaborate Ultra meeting for regular office hours or Q&A sessions where students can talk one-on-one or in small groups with the professor. Make sure to include the link in the corresponding content folder (step 1).
Note: These strategies and all associated content have been reused and adapted from Vanderbilt University's blog post "Putting some of your course content online in a hurry? We have resources for you!"
