Transitioning to Remote. Tips and Pitfalls

Don't try and copy the face-to-face experience in an online environment.

The two environments provide very different experiences for teachers and students. Teachers who attempt to copy their face-to-face class design usually end up piling unnecessary busy work on their students and themselves. This happens because students feel obligated to produce—and teachers expect—higher quality work when something is submitted online versus when it is part of an in-class experience. For example, the following table shows how an in-class experience can balloon student work when a teacher simply tries to replicate their face-to-face class. Remember, this will be in addition to their normal homework assignments:

Face-to-face class session	Time	Online Class Session	Time
Lecture session with questions	30 min	Online recording of class lecture	30 min
		Discussion submission with five questions from 30-minute lecture	30 min
Group/pair activity	10 min	Group/pair online discussion activity	30 min
In-class reflection assignment	10 min	Online writing assignment	30 min
Total time	50 min	Total Time	Two hours

Review your course objectives and ask, "what is the best way to do this online?"

Reviewing the course objectives will give you focus and help you resist the temptation to try and replicate the face-to-face experience exactly. Once you have reviewed the objectives, create learning tasks then that will accomplish those objectives. Keep that focus throughout the design process.

Let your students know the "why" for each task.

This tip relates to the last one. Once you have a clear idea of how each activity relates to the course learning goal, make that relationship explicit to the students. A common pitfall in online course design is that tasks are either not tied to a course learning objective, or that the students don't see how the task is related. If your students say, "this feels like busy work," that is a clear sign that the task needs to align with course objectives or the reasoning needs to be communicated more effectively.

Organize your course clearly.

There are a few ways to organize your course home page in Canvas and each has its benefits and shortcomings. Whether you use the assignment list, syllabus, or module view, make the navigation clear. Try to limit the number of links your students need to navigate. Students can get frustrated if things are difficult to find, depleting precious cognitive energy—the energy you want them to save for learning.

Make students accountable.

If there is no accountability for a task, students won't do it. Canvas presents learning activities as a to-do-list, for good or bad. This means that your students are going to focus on the next to-do item on that list. If there is not a due date and grade associated with the task, they won't see it or will likely skip it.

Communicate with your students frequently and positively.

In online learning, transactional distance is defined as the psychological and communication gaps that occur in distance education as a result of the inherent physical separation. Teachers can close the transactional distance between them and their students by communicating with them frequently. Providing students opportunities to communicate with each other will also help close transactional distance. When providing feedback on assignments be kind, candid, and constructive. Please avoid sweeping comments like, "Good job", or "I expect better in the future". Let students know what they did well and how they can improve. You may also consider holding 'office hours' over an online technology like Canvas Conferences or Zoom.

Make sure you add yourself to the course.

It is easy for students to feel like they are only interacting with a computer. Take time to share your personal experiences, humor, and personality to the course. For example, you may consider doing an introductory activity of some kind. This could be a discussion where you record a video of yourself and your family in everyday life, then have the students do the same.