In the event of an emergency situation, you may need to utilize online resources to continue teaching your class. This guide helps you use technology to find alternatives for these situations. Please contact oel-helpdesk@umich.edu for help and more information.
Submit a ticket to our helpdesk.
Use this check list to see if you are ready to work from home if the campus is closed.
What to consider if you have to move your course online quickly.
Post announcements to students
Post announcements to let your students know what’s going on and how they should expect to continue their course work. Be sure to include information about your expectations and how you plan to meet virtually. Remind students to download the syllabus as well as any important digital files in case they are no longer able to access files on the network. When you create an announcement there is an option to automatically email it to the entire class.
Reorder, Edit, and Delete an Annoucement
How can I offer synchronous lectures?
BlueJeans, Collaborate, and Zoom are synchronous meeting tools you can use to continue your live course sessions in a virtual space. You and your students can connect and participate from a desktop, notebook, tablet, or phone. There are mobile apps available for all three tools and Collaborate/Zoom are already integrated into your course in Blackboard.
use BlueJeans to meet Live |
Use Collaborate to meet live |
Use Zoom to meet live |
Equipment you will need:
- Device with a good internet connection.
- Headphones or earbuds (Optional but recommended.)
- Microphone (A separate microphone works best, but the microphone on your notebook/phone/tablet will get the job done.)
- Webcam (Your notebook/phone/tablet likely has a built-in camera.)
We recommend using these tools to offer your students online office hours.
How do I pre-record lectures with Kaltura?
Kaltura Capture is a video recording and streaming system that all faculty, staff, and students have access to. Use this if you would like to record yourself from a computer or mobile device and share the video in your course. You can develop asynchronous course and lecture material, or video based announcements for your students.
A few tips:
- Try to keep videos between five to ten minutes.
- If you have a lot of material to cover break up the content so you can record a series of shorter videos.
- When planning for your video try to focus on clarity and conciseness of content.
- Work from a script even if it just gives you structure and talking points.
- Order captions for your video.
Video walkthroughs for the core elements of Capture are also available.
Class participation using the discussion board
The discussion board will allow you to facilitate class participation outside of your normal meetings. When setting up your forums, consider these best practices.
- Don’t just ask for basic facts but setup a forum that allows for respectful disagreement and discussion. Student responses should always go beyond simple agreement and allow for an explanation of why they think a certain way.
- Make sure you are creating forums based on shared course material or a piece of media that all students are able to access. Students should be making specific references to evidence in their posts.
- Stagger the due dates of the posts. If an original student post is due one day, make the response post to other students two or three days later.
- If you notice a student is not adequately participating, contact them to encourage more engagement with you and their classmates.
- You and your students can use video in your posts using the Kaltura tools mentioned previously. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a camera rather than type out your thoughts.
To help students think about and formulate posts we have developed a guide that you can add to your course.
Use assignments and tests for online assessment
Assignment and Test tools are available to allow students to ‘hand in’ their course work digitally. You have access to extensive resources that will help you set these up in an efficient way and easily review what was turned in.
- Tests can be created to include several different question types: MC, essay, T/F, fill in the blank, matching, and many more.
- You control when and where your test is available in the course.
- You get access to analytical data so that you can see how much time students take and how they are performing based on their responses to questions.
- When a test is deployed there are options you can adjust for accessibility needs.
Assignments |
Tests |
Post grades to students using the grade center
The grade center is used to store student assessments and grades. This is where you will find student assignment and test submissions, and you can submit grades and leave feedback to your students. All grades are secured and confidential in the learning management system. Grades and feedback are only available to you and the student.