Remote Teaching Tips & Resources: A Quickstart Guide

These resources were curated for faculty to provide guidance in the event instruction must be delivered remotely.

1. Plan and prepare your course in Canvas

   1. Course Announcements in Canvas: To communicate with the entire class in Canvas, add an Announcement. A copy of the announcement will also be sent to your students’ UNC Charlotte email accounts.

      • Step-by-Step Instruction: Announcements

   2. Delivering Course Content: If you have lecture materials written or otherwise recorded, you can make them available by uploading them to your Canvas course. You are encouraged to use the applications that you are most comfortable with to deliver course content. These options may include, but are not limited to:

      • Step-by-Step Instruction: Zoom (Synchronous lecture or create pre-recorded lectures)

   3. Encouraging Student Participation: Create and invite students to participate in online discussions. In the online environment, you can ask better questions that promote critical thinking and give students the time to actually think through their ideas and responses to each other.

      • Step-by-Step Instruction: Create Discussion Board

   4. For more information and instructions on using Canvas, please take this self-paced course:

      • Self-Paced Starting with a Fresh Canvas

2. Engaging your students

   1. Student Welcome & Course Tour Video: For students, beginning a new course is a very exciting time, but learning what to expect and where to find all of the key information for their different classes can simply be overwhelming. One great way to help students get familiar with your course is by making a short video walkthrough of the course plan and navigation.

      • Creating Student Welcome & Course Tour Video

   2. Online Learning Activities: Once students have engaged with the instructional content, practice or learning activities will allow them to demonstrate their understanding. Each learning module should contain at least one activity. These activities may include an assignment, group work, discussion prompt, or project. In addition, quizzes and exams may be created within Canvas. Students may work alone, with a partner, or small group as they complete activities. Later in this module, we will take a closer look at activities and assessments.

      • Online Learning Activity Examples

      • Creating an Assignment in Canvas

      • Creating a Video Assignment

      • Creating a Group or Team Based Assignment

      • Creating a Quiz

   3. Large Online Courses: Like traditional classes, sometimes online courses are large in size. An online course that enrolls more than thirty students needs special consideration.

      • Considerations for large online courses

3. Teaching Synchronously Online

   1. Synchronous Online Sessions with Zoom: Synchronous online courses happen in real time and involve a mixture of traditional lecture and online activities. If your course is primarily lecture based, this may be the closest replacement strategy to face to face courses. Zoom sessions are recordable, so instructors can record sessions and those unable to attend the live meeting can play back the session at a later time.

      • Teaching with Zoom FAQs

      • Best Practices for Synchronous Online Course Sessions (Courtesy of Boston College)

4. The CTL is here to support you. If you would like to speak to an instructional designer or faculty development specialist, please submit a Help Request via the IT Service Desk.