Technology@Wooster

Recommendations for Continuity of Instruction

Written by

Dr. Jon Breitenbucher

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Visit the links for our posts and resources for:

Issue to Address
(links to documentation below)		Possible Solutions
Establish a mode of communication to use in case of an emergency (Ensure students all have access to and are aware of this communication method)Moodle Announcement
Email
Decide how you will distribute documents and readings during a disruption (Make your syllabus available digitally)Moodle
Email
Designate a centralized place to collect student work (homework, assignment, paper, etc.)Moodle Assignments
Email
Think about how you would continue class discussion in the event of a disruptionMoodle Forums
Voices
Teams
Consider recording your lecture content for students to watch remotelyTeams
Video Lecture Options for PowerPoint Narration, screen recording,
ExplainEverything…
Uploading and sharing videoMicrosoft Stream
Hold class and/or office hours virtually/online.  Encourage students to form study groups.Teams
Deliver online quiz/test to evaluate student learning

Moodle Quiz
Microsoft Forms Quiz

Provide students with grades and feedback on their work online in the event of an emergencyMoodle Assignments and Grades
Scanning documents to create PDFsScanning Docs with Apple Notes
Scanning Docs with Microsoft Lens

Using Moodle to Facilitate Continuity

The College’s supported online learning management system (LMS) is Moodle. Wooster’s instance of Moodle provides solutions that allow faculty to engage with their students to maintain course continuity when meeting face-to-face is not an option. Features include the dissemination of content, student collaboration, student assignments and/or activities, and communication – all completed virtually within the learning management system.

Every course section established through Colleague has a corresponding course in Moodle.

  • To access your course(s), please visit https://moodle.wooster.edu to log in using your Wooster credentials.
  • Faculty must make their Moodle course visible (directions on Moodle homepage) for students to have access to and receive communications.

All faculty are encouraged to self-enroll in our Moodle Professional Development course in Moodle (follow this link to the course and click the “self-enroll” button) which features links, handouts, and examples.

Support for using Moodle to:

Update Your Course Page

  • Include a message about new online components and expectations.
  • Include contact information for you.
  • Consider offering virtual office hours through Microsoft Teams.

Suggestions for Student Success:

  • Encourage students to check Moodle courses daily. Reading announcements and other notifications is crucial to having a successful online experience.

Communicate With Students

You can email students in your course using the course short name in Outlook and by adding the Quickmail Block to your Moodle course.

You can post Announcements in your Moodle course – the announcement remains visible in Moodle and an email message is automatically sent to participants.

Suggestions for Student Success:

Host Class Virtually (Live Lecture)

You can schedule a virtual meeting using Microsoft Teams. For best results, you’ll need a computer with a microphone and webcam. Your students can join using a computer, tablet or even phone. See our Microsoft Teams post for more details.

To optimize your Teams session, we recommend:

  • A device with a good internet connection.
  • Use headphones or earbuds with a microphone to minimize surrounding noise and maximize your voice.
  • In your Teams settings, opt to Mute Participants upon entry into the meeting.  As the host of the meeting, instructors can mute and unmute participants at any point.

Step-by-Step Resources for Faculty

Visit these resources below for resources on how to use Teams:

Suggestions for Student Success:

  • Students should ensure they have access to the Internet.
  • Students should ensure they have access to a computer or a mobile device. This device will need to include:
  • Audio — At a minimum, ensure you have speakers and a microphone; however, we recommend a headset or earbuds (with a mic).
  • Video — Ensure you have a webcam, either built into your computer or a USB webcam or a camera-enabled on a mobile device.

Set up a Forum (Discussion Board)

Setting up a Moodle Forum allows students to respond to you and one another asynchronously (i.e., not in real-time). You can provide a prompt that asks students to discuss course material, reflect on how key concepts are linked to other fields of study or to their own experience, or share their works in progress, among other things.

  • Create a forum. Moodle offers several formats for the structure and layout.
  • For large classes, see Creating Group Enabled Forums. Group Enabled Forums make discussions in large classes more manageable.

Tips for administering effective online discussions: 

  • Communicate clear guidelines in the prompt that establish your expectations for students’ contribution to the discussion. Many instructors choose to provide details about the writing style (e.g., formal/informal), number of posts, length (e.g., number of words), frequency, tone, and content (e.g., elements that constitute “value-added”).
  • Use threaded discussion responses to allow students to respond to one another multiple times in an organized way in each discussion board post.
  • Be present in the discussion board by providing feedback and coaching to student responses.
  • Create questions and prompts that require complex thinking and application of ideas to avoid repetitive student responses.

Suggestions for Student Success:

  • Encourage students to first save longer discussion responses in a Word document before entering it in a Discussion posting.  This avoids losing work in the event of any kind of technical glitches during the submission process.

Share Course Documents and Information

Store your files in your OneDrive account and connect Moodle with Office 365 to streamline uploading files stored in OneDrive as a file posted to Moodle.

TIPS:

  • Instructors use many different organizational structures. Time-based courses might have sections titled Week 1, Week 2, etc.. Topic-based courses might have sections titled Course Introduction, Cells, DNA, etc.. Item-type Modules might be titled Lecture Notes, Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, etc.

Scanning Documents to create PDFs

Share Lecture Video and Audio

See our Video Lecture Options post for more details. To record and share lecture videos or screen share presentations, you have several options:

  • Schedule, host, and record a Microsoft Teams meeting with or without your students. A Teams meeting recording is automatically saved to Microsoft Stream. You can then share the link of the Stream video in your Moodle course.
  • Use Explain Everything on an iPad Pro, a tool to capture video and audio of your iPad’s screen and webcam to create lectures, tutorials, demonstrations and more.
  • Narrate a PowerPoint presentation.

To optimize your asynchronous recorded lecture, we recommend:

  • Draft a script or an outline of your ideas for your lecture before recording.
  • Use headphones or earbuds with a microphone to minimize surrounding noise and maximize your voice.
  • Record longer lectures into smaller, separate video lectures, organized by topic, idea, or skill.  By watching video lectures of less than 15 minutes each, learners are more likely to maintain focus and retain key information.
  • Include questions throughout your lectures to engage learners and allow them to check for understanding as they watch.
  • Upload PDF files, websites and media that support the content of your lecture to provide your learners a comprehensive and immersive learning experience.

Assessing Students Digitally

Instructors can leverage Moodle tools to formatively and summatively assess student learning. 

Assignments

Instructors may accept electronic submissions for assignments, quizzes, exams, and more to grade through Moodle. For a brief overview of how to upload grades and how to create assignments in Moodle, visit Educational Technology’s website about Moodle Features and Designing a Course in Moodle.

Instructors may use the Assignments tool in Moodle to collect student work.  

TIPS:

  • When you create an Assignment with the Online Submission type, Moodle automatically creates the drop box for students to submit their Assignment files.
  • Graded Quizzes and Discussions are also considered Assignments. When you create them on the Quizzes and Discussions pages, they will show up on the Assignments page as well.
  • You must create an assignment for anything you wish to assign a grade in the gradebook.
  • Make sure that you publish each assignment to make them available to students and create the corresponding column in the Gradebook.

Suggestions for Student Success:

  • Always save documents before turning them in online. Store your files in your OneDrive account and connect Moodle with Office 365 to streamline uploading files stored in OneDrive as a submission for a Moodle assignment.
  • Keep track of assignments and due dates from the blocks in the Moodle course sidebar such as Calendar and Upcoming events and the syllabus, if available.

Quizzes

Instructors can create quizzes, exams and tests using the Quizzes tool in Moodle.

  • Learn how to create a Quiz for online submission.
  • Learn how to provide extra time that might be required for specific students.
  • Learn how to access quiz statistics.

Tips for administering effective exams online: 

  • Create complex questions that require deep, analytical thinking skills to complete.
  • Use time limits for the exam availability to maintain students’ focus during the exam.
  • Randomize the questions of a quiz to maximize academic integrity.

Suggestions for Student Success:

  • Make sure you have a reliable internet connection when taking a quiz.
  • Avoid taking tests on mobile devices such as phones or tablets. Not all quiz settings or question types are compatible with the mobile app yet.
  • Do not navigate to other locations or applications in Moodle after the test opens. Do not use any of the browser navigation buttons (i.e. Back, Forward, Home, etc.)

Options for Assignments/Exams Using a Word Document

Educational Technology has put together some resources for faculty on options for assignments and exams using a Word document. Visit our Options for Exams using a Word Documents for links to resources, examples, and more.

Accessible Teaching Resources

Accessible Teaching in the Time of Covid-19

Keeping Students Engaged