In the event of an emergency or University closure affecting all or parts of the campus, your ability to continue your class in your regular manner may be impacted. This article aims to help you deliver your courses online in such situations.
Prepare Beforehand
- Ensure your devices are compliant: University employees need to meet specific security requirements on their devices to access the campus systems, so ensure that the devices that you will be using are compliant to the requirements.
- Set up Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): MFA is required for secure access to major campus systems, so ensure your MFA is set up in advance to enable you to log in from home in the case of a disruption.
- Make your contact information known: At the beginning of the semester, send your students your contact information via email or a Brightspace Announcement, in case they need to contact you.
- Keep a copy of student contacts: Consider downloading student contact information from UWinsite Student or your Brightspace course site in case you will need to contact your students in a future emergency. You can also obtain student emails from the class Groups in Microsoft Outlook.
- Remind student to download or print a copy of the syllabus.
- Make backups: In the event of an outage, parts of the campus system may temporarily become unusable. If there are files that are important to you, consider making copies and store them securely at different components of the system (e.g., OneDrive) and on your local hard drive/computer.
- Learn how to use Microsoft Teams and how to schedule a meeting in Teams in order to be able to use this platform for conducting classes, if necessary.
- Teaching Online resources: Visit https://www.uwindsor.ca/teaching-online to discover practices, supports and resources to help you develop your online teaching at UWindsor.
During the Disruptions
- Determine your method of delivery: The first consideration when moving your classes online is whether you will need real-time synchronous lectures and what content you can share asynchronously. In addition to the Brightspace Learning Management System, the University of Windsor provides Microsoft Team as a videoconferencing platform for synchronous online lectures. Instructors can also use Microsoft Stream and YuJa for uploading asynchronous media content (i.e. videos).
- For strategies to effectively build active engagement into your courses, visit the Teaching Online website.
- For direct links to instructions for using specific interactive tools in Brightspace, visit the Instructor How To webpage.
- Communicate to your students: In times of disruption, communication is key. We encourage you to communicate frequently with students to help reduce their anxiety and ensure they are aware of your plans going forward. Let students know that you are on their side and will do your best to ensure that any accommodations they require will be addressed.
- Use Outlook email, Brightspace’s Email tool, or Brightspace’s Announcement tool to alert students of your plans.
- Get familiar with your method of delivery: Brightspace has many tools, including Content, Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes, which instructors can use to engage student in an online environment. Visit the links in the Instructor Resources section below to learn more.
- Test your setup: If you are just starting to use a technology or if you have not used it for a while, ensure the setup of your lectures, assignment, tests and other components produces the behaviour in the manner you expect it to. If you have a GA or TA (Teaching Assistant), test the setup with them to ensure that what your students will see is what you expect.
- Consider alternate formats: Consider restructuring your assignments, labs, and exams that have become unfeasible due to the disruption. Online Labs for Remote Classes and Lab/Simulation Resources may provide some ideas.
- Keep accessibility in mind: Ensure that your course remains accessible to students with disabilities as they adapt to a new method of course delivery. OHRCRM has a list of resources to help instructors create accessible documents, and CTL has a document on accessibility features in Brightspace.
- Forward voicemail: Consider having your voicemail forwarded to your email so you can retrieve your messages even if you are not in your office. Please read the TeamDynamix article on voicemail forwarding.
- Stay tuned to updates: The University of Windsor may post updates to the situation through email, public announcements, and/or social media. Keep up to date with developments of resolving the disruption will affect you and your students.
- Ask for help: If you are experiencing difficulties delivering courses online, contact the Centre for Teaching and Learning for help and more information.
Factors to Consider
When changing your course delivery in the event of a prolonged disruption, take these factors into consideration:
- Length of disruption: Do you expect to return to the campus during the remainder of the semester? If returning, will students have time to adapt to the change in course delivery again?
- Access to technology: Do most of your students have access to the technology you require for the course? How will you accommodate those who do not have the technology, or cannot use the technology due to disability and/or other reasons?
- Risk of outage: What if there is an outage during your assessments? Will you offer make-up opportunities, or is there a better solution?
Instructor Resources
Student Resources