Ten quick tips for successful online delivery this term

UCL Digital Education shares learned tips for teaching online.

1. Be kind

To yourselves and your students. Expect to be less productive - there’s a lot going on.

It is unlikely that you will be able to teach to an existing timetable, so don’t try to. 

2. Keep it simple 

Don’t try to replicate everything online; it isn’t the same and it shouldn’t be.

Think about:

• what are the key things your students need to know – the key learning objectives and threshold concepts?
• what is the simplest way of enabling that learning to happen?

3. Think asynchronous 

Re-think when and how learning can happen.

It is likely that your students will be spread across multiple time zones, this can make scheduling synchronous activities difficult. 

However, there are many ways that learning can happen asynchronously.

4. Beyond video 

Video is great, but it’s exhausting if done live and requires good internet access.  

Consider: 

• does the session need to be live? Pre-record where you can; it's both less stressful and less tiring. 
• keeping videos short. 
• if adding videos from third-party sources such as Box of Broadcasts, can they be accessed by all of your students? 
• do you have students that need captions or transcripts? 
• can you provide the information in an alternative way? 

5. Accessible by design 

With the need to move to teach online, digital accessibility is ever more important.

Your Moodle course has become the primary means of both being taught and accessing learning material, and it will impact how you design your course and its content. 

Consider:

• any reasonable adjustments students have in place? These will need to continue to be met even if the student isn’t currently on campus;
• what tools and technologies are available to your students? Some may be accessing a course from an area with poor internet connectivity and thus unable to access material such as video;
• where are your students? They may be in different time zones. Consider the use of asynchronous activities:
  • forums
  • blogs through UCL Reflect
  • wikis. 

6. Students as partners 

Co-design activities with your students.

Find out where they are and what technologies they have available to them.

Use this information to co-design or redesign learning activities and formative assessments. Actively involve your students in the process.

7. Show your students you care  

Being ‘seen’ is important to students.

To check in with your students, can you:

• send them an email? 
• arrange virtual office hours? 
• make use of Microsoft Office Teams, or chat features in Moodle? 

8. Be clear with your expectations  

Be clear about what you expect students to do and when. 

Students may have additional commitments that reduce their ability to study effectively.

Remove or hide any unnecessary content on your Moodle course. Some students will try to read everything. The hide feature can also be used to release content in weekly blocks, but let students know that this is what you are doing.

We don’t want students to feel overwhelmed; at the same time, we don’t want them to have too many surprises. 

9. Remote, not distant 

Being connected to their institution and to their programme is a known indicator of good student attainment and achievement.

While students are remote, not distant, continuing that sense of connection is even more important.  

Provide opportunities for students to collaborate and socialise with their peers. This could be through:

• asynchronous group tasks
• live seminar sessions, or by
• utilising the chat tool in Moodle.

10. Communicating key messages to students

Be mindful of the number of communications that are going to your students.

Overloading students with continuous announcements from multiple channels is not helpful.

Work with your Covid Mitigation Coordinators (CMCs). 

They are responsible for forwarding a summary of messages from central services to whomever in their department/faculty is best placed to share the information more widely.