Flexible Teaching and Learning

CPI supports teaching and learning to become more Flexible, Accessible, and Customizable

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to Contact the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation.

Every Brock University course has a Brightspace site that the instructor of record can choose to activate at any time.

MS Teams sites can be automatically created for any course within a few minutes. Once activated, a class MS Teams site can be used to schedule a recurring meeting.

As per FHB III.C 6.8, The University shall make every effort to maintain services, that are not directly impacted by the disruption for students, where reasonably possible to do so.

Looking for inspiration?

Visit the Online Teaching Gallery for recordings of Brock Instructors talking about their online teaching experiences

CPI’s gallery of instructors describing their online teaching

More ideas to consider for your class:

  • If you generally have a class break, consider allowing students to leave class early instead of having a break to help reduce traffic flow on campus and to provide more time for entering and exiting class.
  • Consider using the Brightspace Assignments tool instead of having student submit paper-based assignment to minimize student’s need for printing, being on campus, and handling shared resources.
  • There are many legitimate reasons students may be unable to attend class. Here are some strategies to support students off-campus to continue to engage:
    • Ask one of the students to take notes and connect with that student to provide the notes.
    • Create an MS Teams meeting and allow one or more of the students to connect to the off-campus student(s) so that they are able to virtually attend lecture. Students can also create MS Teams sessions themselves on their laptops or phones to share with their peers who are away.
    • Share recordings from lectures that you might have made previously.
    • If a student misses a test or quiz, use the online quiz tool to provide them with the opportunity to complete the test/quiz.
  • Instructors are welcome to hold their office hours online through the MS Teams

CPI provides a course outline template for graduate and undergraduate courses that includes suggested language for policy around academic integrity and accommodations.

Putting course resources on a website or in Brock University’s Learning Management System (Brightspace) means that students can access course documents, complete assignments, take quizzes, and post on discussion forums electronically.

Online modules can also be created with the easy-to-use Brightspace Content tool.

history screencast lecture

Example of a pre-recorded video lecture by Dr. Samson in HIST 2P01

Your entire lecture does not need to be a video. Research shows that videos less than 10 minutes are ideal (Guo, Kim, & Rubin, 2014). See the section on using Lessons on how you can incorporate static text and images to provide context to short lectures or “lecture-ettes”.

To prerecord video on a local computer for distribution online via the LMS or other platforms, instructors may wish to use one of the following asynchronous video solutions:

Microsoft PowerPoint has built-in audio and timing recording functionality which allows instructors to narrate their own power points. Instructors can use the same slides they already use, record audio, export them as a video, and upload video recordings to Brightspace See office.com for detailed instructions.

Depending on the type of assessment, it may be possible to keep the existing format in place with small tweaks to have students submit online.

Assignments

Paper-based assignments can be easily adapted to the Brightspace Assignments tool. Students can also submit videos recorded on their phone, webcam, or record a presentation in PowerPoint, export it as a video, and upload the video to the Assignments tool.

There are many ways to create videos. Instructors are encouraged to give students opportunities to practice submitting digital assignments in a low-stakes context before requiring high-stakes submissions.

Quizzes

Brightspace can be used to create and deliver quizzes. Accommodations and exceptions can be created for students per quiz or across the course. Once a quiz has been released to students, modifications and exceptions are not practical.

This can allow for remote, synchronous or in-person classes to take quizzes in “real time” (at the same time). This feature offers less flexibility and accommodation than standard quizzing, where students can take a quiz in their own time (asynchronous).

As per a 2020 Provostial directive, there is no central supports for online proctoring tools. Instructors are reminded that “All software should meet the University’s privacy, accessibility and security policies and standards.” (FHB III.A 3.10.4.2)

We have guides for Creating Accessible Classroom Resources that can help guide you through the process.

Discussions can be a good way to engage in meaningful discussions either in text, audio, or video. They can be useful for frequently asked questions or topic-based conversations. The Discussion tool in Brightspace can be used to automatically create discussion spaces for Seminars and Labs.

Instructors are responsible for adding their TAs to Brightspace. The Classlist or Sections tool can be used to Add a TAs to specific “Sections” (Seminars).

Contact [email protected] to schedule a consult to best address your pedagogical needs for achieving your courses’ learning outcomes

Mobilizing Partnerships to Assist: