- Contact students
- Make adjustments
- Consider which digital tools meet your needs
- Create online course materials
- Distribute online course materials
- Make accommodations
As concerns about COVID 19 ramp up in the U.S. and abroad, you may feel that it is time to take your courses online. Below, we outline a few ways you can get online and out of the classroom, quickly.
1. Contact students
Contact students even if you’re unsure about how you’ll move forward.
Use the same communication method you normally do with students to reach out about classes moving forward.
2. Make adjustments
Re-evaluate your expectations and goals for your course. Consider how you may need to re-structure assignment scopes, due dates, and assessment methods. Don’t worry about making every change at once, and instead, focus on prioritizing assignments with the closest due dates.
3. Consider which digital tools meet your needs
How will you teach your courses online? Consider how you can meet your students’ learning needs, and how you might reduce their need to learn new tools or software. Polling students is a great way to gain insights into what tools students are familiar with already.
Best for asynchronous learning: Panopto
- Multiple views displayed (presenters, slideshows, or screens) in one video
- Edit materials before distributed
- Automatic captioning on videos
Best for synchronous learning: Zoom
- Allows for live peer-to-peer interaction
- Only one view displayed (presenter, slideshow, or screen)
- Host on-demand office hours
Best for content management: Canvas
- Communicate with students
- Send notifications when course material is updated
- Access Panopto and Zoom through Canvas
- Integrate with Panopto, InstaPoll, and other tools
4. Create online course materials
Once you decide on how to take your course online, you will need to make an implementation plan. Below, we provide links to instructional resources. If you choose to make audio/visual material ahead of class, Panopto offers the chance to edit and has better captioning options. For live classes or meetings, you will want to use Zoom.
5. Distribute online course materials
Once you have decided on the tools that suit your needs, distribute your course materials and resources to your students. Listed below are some resources to help you get started making your materials easy to find and accessible.
6. Make accommodations
Online materials should still be captioned/transcribed as a best practice even if students do not need an SSD accommodation. You can create auto-generated captions within both Zoom and Panopto, though these are on average about 70% accurate, so edits and reviews are recommended.
If you have a student who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing, making your online course accessible is a priority. ADA compliant captions and transcripts can be created for pre-recorded course material with the help of UT’s Captioning Service. Please note that with the increased demand, sending in audio/visual files should be done as soon possible so materials can then be dispersed at the same time to all students.
If you have an SSD accommodation and plan on having a live Zoom lecture or interactive assignment, you can contact SSD about live captioning services. Links to the Instructional Continuity recommendation pages are below.