Fall 2020

CITL Support for Fall 2020

Last updated: August 20, 2020

The CITL is working to support the extensive number of our faculty and Associate Instructors who will be teaching in new modalities in the fall semester due to COVID-19. This includes support for fully online courses as well as blended courses.

Our support approach is composed of the following components, each described more below:

In addition to the programming list below, you can always see upcoming events on the CITL Events page.

We are working to scale our services for a large audience this summer, so we are asking individuals to start with some of these online resources, and then come to us with individual, refined questions later. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to work individually with each faculty member from the start of their course development process. That said, we will do our best to respond to your questions and give feedback on course/assignment plans as you development them.

A webinar recording describing these services and recommended approaches to utilizing them is available here: Recording (6/29/2020, 52:10)

TOPS Webinars

Our Teaching Online Preparation Series (TOPS) will provide instructors with a structured opportunity to learn about effective online course design and to practice application of these principles on the beginnings of an online course. As part of this process, instructors will identify course learning outcomes, and then develop one aligned module that structures content, learning activities, and assessments. 

  • Live and recorded webinars. We will offer most of these webinars multiple times, and they will be recorded for those who want to participate asynchronously.
  • Feedback is available from CITL consultants on course components, such as outcomes, modules, activities, and assessments. We also encourage peer feedback of such materials at the local level.
  • Canvas templates are pre-loaded with essential elements of online courses, and our approaches help you leverage those templates.
  • Customized programming is available to departments/schools that can partner with us to co-develop and facilitate sessions.

The following tentative list of webinars can roughly be divided into two categories: Online Essentials webinars provide core information about putting courses online and are at the heart of our TOPS program, and Specialty webinars explore topics that may be specific to some instructors or classes.

The list below will be updated with registration links as sessions are scheduled, and with recording links for later viewing. Please note that recordings may not be available immediately, as we need to edit captions for accuracy.

You may also see a list of programs by date on our CITL Events page.


Online Essentials Webinars

We encourage all participants to take these overview sessions, preferably in the order presented below.

30,000-Foot Planning: Strategic Online Course Design
This webinar will review the major design decisions faculty need to make as they move their courses fully or partly online, including the length of term, the class format, and whether to conduct class synchronously or asynchronously. It will examine strategies for designing a course that is engaging and effective for students, while still being manageable for instructors.


Preparing Your Fall 2020 Canvas Course with the IU Course Templates
Get a walkthrough of the template pre-loaded into your Fall 2020 Canvas courses, with an explanation of how to use those elements to support student success, and demonstrations of how to edit the template. This template is optional and can be removed, but it provides a solid structure for starting your fall course sites.


Putting Your Course Content Online 
In this webinar, we will look at using Canvas Modules to organize your course content, using Pages to add structure, and provide tips for creating engaging activities for your students.


Creating Online Assignments
Learn about creating effective online assignments that are linked to student learning outcomes (SLOs) for the course. We will emphasize instructor transparency about how assignments meet SLOs, the use of online technologies to help students understand assignments, and opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in multiple ways.

  • Thursday, July 30, 2:30 – 3:30 pm (Register)


Assessing Student Learning Online 
Learn to assess student knowledge and performance in online settings. Includes gathering feedback on student learning, alternatives to traditional exams and quizzes, and communicating learning outcomes to students through rubrics.

 

Facilitating Online Courses
In this webinar, we will address five common concerns among faculty when facilitating their online courses: reducing student attrition, facilitating grading and feedback, optimizing instructor presence, making large classes engaging and effective, and managing time. Presenters will provide evidence based strategies for addressing each of these concerns during the semester, while faculty panelists will provide examples from their own online courses.

  • Coffee Talk: Monday, June 15, 1:00 - 2:00 pm
  • Coffee Talk: Monday, June 22, 1:00 - 2:00 pm
  • Thursday, August 19, 10:00 - 11:15 am (Register)

 

Specialty Webinars

Teaching for Equity, with Empathy
The uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic are creating tremendous challenges for students, and especially students from vulnerable and marginalized groups. If we fail to support students through these challenges, we risk exacerbating inequalities on campus and making students' trauma worse. As educators, then, we have a responsibility to teach for equity and with empathy. In this webinar, Dr. Jessica Calarco, Associate Professor of Sociology, discusses what that approach looks like in practice, with concrete recommendations for administrators and for instructors teaching on campus and online.

 

Our Favorite Ways to Grade Remotely — A Faculty Panel
How can we grade students remotely in ways that encourage learning and are not too strenuous for the instructors? What are our favorite ways to evaluate student learning that are less rather than more painful? In this webinar, J Duncan (SICE), Caty Pilachowski (Astronomy), and Jennifer Terrell (Social Informatics) show their favored methods and tools for grading and assessing student learning. These methods will include tests (but not heavy monitoring), worksheets, team projects, and open-ended writing assignments (designed for teacher survival). We’ll also talk about CATs—low-stakes, frequent checks on student learning.


Creating and Supporting Effective Remote Group Projects
In this webinar, participants will learn about and share strategies for creating, supporting, and evaluating effective groups, including groups that are working remotely. 

Online Course Support: An Introduction for Teaching Assistants and Support Staff
Are you assisting an instructor in an online course? Wondering how you can help set up the Canvas site and create a positive learning environment for all students? In this technology-focused webinar we will share: 

  • how to assist in Zoom sessions or with video recordings 
  • options and tools for communicating with students 
  • tools for supporting and facilitating student interaction
  • Canvas tools for providing students feedback on their assignments

  • Recording (1:17:20)

Creating Self-Regulated Online Learners
In this webinar, CITL and Student Academic Center staff team up to help you develop self-regulated online learners. We will begin by introducing the concepts of self-regulated learning and metacognition and spend most of our time providing evidence-based strategies you as the instructor can build into common learning activities as well as strategies students can implement on their own.

Fostering Engagement in Online Discussions
Discussion boards become our default setting for gathering student's thoughts in an online environment. But are we integrating the work students share in their posts into the course as it unfolds? Online discussion offers a means to build a sense of connection not just to the student and course content, but among your students, as well. Drawing on Boettcher & Conrad's (2016) Online Teaching Survival Guide, this webinar will share tips for building a sustainable and rich online discussion practice.

"eService-Learning": Developing a Virtual Community Engaged Learning (Service-Learning) Course
Are you figuring out how you to teach your community-engaged learning (service-learning) virtually? In this webinar, participants will learn about considerations for adapting a community-engaged learning class for virtual or hybrid spaces. We will emphasize revising course materials & assignments (to expand how community is envisioned), the use of online technologies to help students understand and reflect on service, and forms of virtual service.

  • Friday, July 10, 2:00 – 3:00 pm

The Affordances and Constraints of Using Zoom in Synchronous and Asynchronous Teaching – A Faculty Panel
IUB instructors describe how they used Zoom as they transitioned from face-to-face to online classes in Spring 2020. Some used Zoom to facilitate synchronous teaching, while others used Zoom to support various asynchronous course activities. Part 1 of the recording includes each panelist's five-minute introduction in which they share their strategies and tips, while Part 2 of the recording is the question and answer session of the panel discussion.


Community-Engaged Learning: Critical reflection in virtual “eService-Learning” Classes
This Webinar introduces participants to the role and importance of reflection in applied learning pedagogies (community-engaged learning, service-learning, experiential learning), gives participants practice designing assignments using the DEAL Model for Critical Reflection, (Ash & Clayton, 2009), and online technologies for reflection assignments.

  • Wednesday, July 22, 2:00 – 3:00 pm


Contract-Specs Grading: Good for F2F Teaching AND Good for Online Teaching
Contract (or Specs) grading provides students with flexibility while letting instructors promote self-motivated learning. This webinar walks instructors through the process of setting up the assignment bundles, tokens, and specs (a rubric) for your course.

Favorite Ways to Get Students to Interact Remotely – A Faculty Panel
How can we get students to interact remotely? What are our favorite ways to help students engage with course materials and join in community to do so? In this webinar, Erika Biga Lee (Informatics), Jared Allsop (Recreation, Parks, & Tourism), and Joan Middendorf (CITL) show their favored methods and tools for handling lots of questions, office hours, and student presentations and collaboration in working groups.


Teaching Lab Courses Online 
In this webinar, participants will learn about some of the decision points for teaching a STEM lab online. Whether you are designing a new online lab or moving an existing face-to-face lab to the online environment, this webinar will help you understand the major decisions you will have to make about your course. We will also discuss two common concerns: group work and assessment. 

  • Friday, June 26, 10:30 – 11:30 am
  • Monday, July 13, 2:00 – 3:00 pm
  • Wednesday, July 29, 3:00 – 4:00 pm

STEM Labs Online: Making Design Decisions
In this webinar, participants will learn about some of the decision points for teaching a STEM lab online. Whether you are designing a new online lab or moving an existing face-to-face lab to the online environment, this webinar will help you understand the major decisions you will have to make about your course. We will also discuss two common concerns: group work and assessment.


Online Writing Assignments for Student Engagement, Learning, and Assessment 
Participants will learn about using both low-stakes and more formal writing assignments to engage students and to foster student learning. We will emphasize strategies that can be used in a variety of class sizes and settings, including creative approaches to online discussion forums, short writings that assess student learning, and final projects that allow for student choice. 

Inclusive Grading of Student Writing Online: Practice-Based Approaches
Student backgrounds and funds of knowledge are not separate from their writing and communicative styles, making instructors wonder how to give fair and consistent grades and feedback. In response to recent needs to transition online, this video of a recorded webinar focuses on practical ways to evaluate student writing through digital platforms. We discuss some of the common values and biases that can be in play when evaluating students from diverse backgrounds. Participants will leave with a stronger understanding of practice-based strategies for grading and giving feedback to student writing.


A Short Course on Lesson Design
In a faculty learning community that takes place over five sessions, instructors will develop a strategy to teach a difficult topic very well in their course. By the final session, they will place their materials in a Canvas module, adapting it for their course, learning activities, and assessments. Preparation is required prior to each team session. 

  • Monday/Wednesday meetings (July 13, 15, 20, 22, 29) (Register)
  • Tuesday/Thursday meetings (July 14, 16, 21, 23, 30) (Register)


Strategies for Remote Exams and Assessments
This recorded webinar from Spring 2020 addresses strategies and options for handling exams and other assessments online, tools for managing media submissions (presentations, problem-solving demos, etc.), Canvas Quiz strategies for automatically-graded exams, and strategies and tool settings to promote ethical online test-taking.


Assessing Student Learning Using Canvas Tools
In this webinar participants will learn how to use Canvas tools to assess learning in the online course. We will explore options for formative and summative assessment in Canvas with tools such as the Assignments tool, the Quizzes tool, and SpeedGrader/Gradebook. We will look at using media in assessment, accessibility and equity considerations, and ongoing assessment as a way of helping students stay engaged with your online course.

  • Friday, July 17, 2:30 - 3:30 pm
  • Thursday, August 6, 11:30 am - 12:30 pm (Register)


Core Canvas Tools
Learn about using core Canvas tools to help your students meet learning goals in your online class. Learn about tools for communication, discussion, and building community, for engaging with content, and for feedback and assessment.

  • Tuesday, June 30, 10:00 – 11:00 am
  • Tuesday, July 7, 2:30 – 3:30 pm


Recording and Sharing Video with Kaltura
This recorded webinar from Spring 2020 walks you through using Kaltura to record and deliver video to your students. It was facilitated by our colleagues at IUPUI.


Increasing Student Engagement with Recorded Lectures Using Kaltura Quizzes
Jacob Farmer, instructor in the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUB, needed to break up his traditional lecture sessions into more digestible chunks for his students. He created or found short, engaging videos and wanted to hold students accountable for viewing them. He decided to use the Kaltura quizzing function to embed low stakes assessments into these videos. This webinar shows how you can use Kaltura quizzes to enhance your recorded lectures and gain insight into student engagement that may otherwise be difficult. He demonstrates how you can create an efficient workflow, showing the whole process from creating a lecture capture through creating modules and assignments in Canvas.


Use CN to Add Social Discussion to Your Class in the Absence of Live Lecture
Join this webinar to learn how to use CourseNetworking (CN Post) to add social discussion to your online class. The CN Post provides a very easy to use, Facebook-like, student-driven discussion space for you and your students. Using the tool, students can freely talk to each other, share learning resources, and answer each other’s questions. CN Post can be a replacement or complement to the Canvas Discussions tool. This webinar will show you how to set up CN Post in your Canvas course, facilitate student discussion, and easily track participation from both desktop and mobile devices. (Hosted by IUPUI's CyberLab, creator of The CN.)

  • Thursday, August 6, 2:00 - 2:45 pm (Register)
  • Friday, August 14, 11:00 - 11:45 am (Register)


Support for On-Campus Teaching

While we are developing local resources about on-campus teaching this fall, please take a look at this post from our colleague Derek Bruff at Vanderbilt University:
Active Learning in Hybrid and Socially Distanced Classrooms, and this article on hybrid teaching from the Chronicle of Higher Education.


The following sessions about on-campus teaching will be scheduled for July, as we are currently prioritizing events on online course development.

Engaging Your Students in the Physically Distanced Classroom
Will you or your students be in a classroom at any point during this fall semester? Do you have questions about how you will teach, how your students will engage, or how your class meetings might be different? The purpose of this webinar is to give you an opportunity to begin addressing questions and framing your approach to student engagement and general logistics for classroom meetings this fall based on the new classroom protocols and potential disruptions to in-person class meetings throughout the semester. Webinar facilitators will share some scenarios of student engagement strategies for various classroom contexts.

  • Recording (1:17:10)
    Note: Hosted by the IU Mosaic Initiative and IUPUI.


Using Classroom Technology for Hybrid Instruction
This video describes the basics of using the classroom technology when you are teaching to both in-classroom and remote students simultaneously, or just need to record your class session: powering up the room, joining Zoom, understanding how to manage the camera and microphone, and sharing your screen and handwritten content. For a companion article, see: https://kb.iu.edu/d/bghb


IU’s Mosaic Initiative—which supports the university’s efforts to promote active learning, innovative classroom design, and associated research—is exploring what active learning might look like in the fall semester. Subscribe to the Mosaic Initiative Blog to follow their latest ideas and tips. 


Informal “Coffee Talks”

These sessions are informal conversations intended to bring faculty together with CITL staff to discuss approaches to teaching in the fall semester. Topics vary. See the CITL Events page for upcoming offerings, and see the CITL Blog for summaries of past Coffee Talks.

Coffee Talk: Teaching Community-Engaged (Service-Learning) during Social Distancing
Thursday, June 25, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.


Quick Help Guides

These short guides share key concepts about important issues. While not intended to be all you need to teach in new modalities, they offer solid tips and starting points on important teaching issues. More coming soon.


Recommended Books and Resources

We recognize that our programming will not meet everyone’s needs, so we also recommend the following resources for instructors who want to take an independent approach, or who want to work with a small group of colleagues in preparing for fall teaching.

Self-Paced Online Resources

IU Online Faculty Starter Kit
If you want to learn best practices and practical steps for designing and delivering online courses, the IU Online Faculty Starter Kit is for you. This free, self-paced tutorial, available through IU Expand (on Canvas), includes 17 modules designed to orient instructors to teaching online at IU. The kit is also a repository for resources on best practices for designing and delivering online courses that you can return to any time. (Note: You can probably skip over the first module, which focuses on larger administrative aspects about proposing/developing online courses at IU.)

Teaching for Student Success Course
Teaching for Student Success: An Evidence-Based Approach is an online course that provides a framework for teaching and learning grounded in empirical research. Whether you’re a new instructor or have been teaching for years, teach face-to-face, hybrid, or online, these modules will help you articulate your own teaching philosophy and better serve your students, regardless of discipline. While not specifically about online education, TSS provides solid course development advice that is very applicable to online instruction. You can go through the course on your own or join a cohort facilitated by the CITL (enrollments this summer may be limited).

Quality Matters Resources
QM is a framework for guiding the development of high-quality online courses, and a review/certification process that ensures quality. Even if you don’t go through the whole QM process, some of their resources provide good guidelines for creating quality online courses (and online components in blended situations):

Books

The following books provide excellent, concrete approaches to developing and teaching courses in both online and blended environments. They are available in electronic format from the IU Libraries’ IUCAT. The CITL is offering some reading groups this summer on these books (see our Events page), and we can also help you establish a group in your own department. 

The Online Teaching Survival Guide – Boettcher & Conrad (2016)
Boettcher & Conrad present a comprehensive and user-friendly guide for anyone teaching online. Organized into three parts, the book covers core principles of learning and teaching online, specific tips and strategies to teach effectively in this space, and a section on reflection and planning to increase your skill as an online instructor.  In addition to these division, Part 2 on specific tips is divided into four categories of course chronology: beginning, early middle, late middle, and end. The chapter on discussion boards is particularly helpful. Read online at IUCAT

  • STEM Reads Group—Catch up on reading and join us (Register)


Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes – Darby (2019)
Inspired by James Lang’s (2016) Small Teaching, Flower Darby provides readers with small, strategic changes that can make a large impact on student learning in the online space. Readers will learn about applying the backward design process to online courses, how to build community within the course, and strategies for motivating students in this space. Read online at IUCAT

  • STEM Reads Group—July 9, 15, 23, 1:30 – 2:30 PM (Register)

eService Learning: Creating Experiential Learning and Civic Engagement through Online and Hybrid Courses – Strait & Nordyke (2015)
Are you figuring out how you to teach your community-engaged learning (service-learning) virtually? This book is a useful tool to help you consider what community engagement can look like when interaction may be remote. Read online at IUCAT

  • Reading Group—July 6 & 20, August 3 (Register)


Flipped Learning: A Guide for Higher Education Faculty – Talbert (2017)
Talbert’s seven-step process for “flipping” a classroom not only provides a simple breakdown for transitioning face-to-face content to an online format, but also addresses the biggest concerns and questions that arise with when teaching in a partial or fully online environments. This research-based approach to organizing and implementing content provides guidance in making the most of an online space through considering a range of topics including cognitive load, multimedia learning, and self-regulated learning. Read online at IUCAT


The Blended Course Design Workbook: A Practical Guide – Linder (2017)
This text is a true workbook designed to guide readers through designing a blended course from start to finish. Whether you have a new prep or are transitioning a face-to-face course to an online format, this workbook is your friend, particularly in this time of unknown modality for fall. Linder begins by providing definitions of course modality based on the percentage of content delivered online—blended 30-79% and online 80% or more. Read online at IUCAT


Partnerships

We regularly collaborate with faculty across IUB's schools and departments, so we know you have significant local expertise in teaching, both face-to-face and online. Let us help you set up some local programming that draws on your colleagues' expertise and grounds the work in your disciplinary context. We can particularly help you set up cohorts to work through our webinars or one of the books we recommend above. Contact us for more information.