Weather or other emergency situations may warrant Auburn University leadership to alter the operations schedule and shift to remote teaching. Adapting to remote teaching during unexpected weather conditions can be challenging. This page provides step-by-step guidance, resources, and support to ensure a smooth transition to remote instruction.
The guidance provided on this page is for in-person, on-campus courses that have to shift temporarily and quickly to virtual/remote instruction. Faculty teaching a course with a planned online modality should consult with the Biggio Center learning experience design services to provide the best Auburn Experience.
Getting Started with Remote Instruction
Instructors have the following modalities to choose from when transitioning to remote instruction:
- Synchronous: the class will meet at the originally scheduled time, and the instructor will lead the class much like an in-person class session.
- Asynchronous: the class will not meet at the originally scheduled time, but the instructor will provide instructional materials, and students will be expected to engage with the material, including submitting any assignments, by a set date and time.
Synchronous Teaching
For synchronous teaching, the Biggio Center recommends using Zoom integrated with Canvas to provide your students with the most convenient and secure, FERPA-compliant environment. All Auburn University employees and students have a license for Zoom and should login using single sign-on (SSO) using their Auburn credentials.
Instructions for integrating Zoom into Canvas are provided via the following knowledgebase article: How to Integrate Zoom with Canvas.
1. Log into Zoom
- Access your licensed Zoom account: https://auburn.zoom.us.
- Sign in with your Auburn credentials to schedule or join virtual classes.
2. Prepare Your Course Materials
- Use Canvas to upload files, share resources, and communicate with students. For instructions on using Canvas announcements to communicate with your students, see the following article: How to send a Canvas Announcement.
- Record lectures or host live classes using Zoom.
3. Inform Your Students
- Use Canvas announcements or email to notify students of class updates.
- Share the Zoom link for live sessions or the location of recorded materials in Canvas.
Zoom Quick Help
- Zoom: Sign-in
- Schedule a Zoom meeting
- Secure your Zoom meeting
- Share Your Screen in Zoom
- Recording Meetings (Lectures) in Zoom. The Biggio Center recommends recording to the cloud. You can access cloud recordings from the Zoom portal.
Tips for Effective Synchronous Remote Teaching
- Distill key teaching points from your lessons into multiple, shorter lectures of 6-10 minutes of content broken up with discussion or student-led activities, which maintains and focuses student attention
- Include asynchronous components to the course, such as posting lecture videos, notes, and other materials online and using discussion forum technology to allow students to connect with you and with one another outside of lectures
- Use Canvas announcements to communicate easily with the entire class. Many students utilize Canvas alerts on their mobile devices, and all of them receive the announcement via email. This makes Canvas announcements the most reliable way to communicate with students.
Asynchronous Teaching
Asynchronous course delivery is the quickest and easiest way to migrate a lecture or seminar course online. It mitigates many of the access issues students encounter when they do not have strong internet connections or WiFi-enabled devices at home. This may be the only available option for instructors and students sharing a space with others or responsible for unplanned childcare, eldercare, or other commitments. Asynchronous delivery can be augmented by synchronous office hours, study sessions, discussion groups, or follow-ups.
- Distill key teaching points from your lectures into multiple, shorter videos of 6-10 minutes of content—this maintains student attention and allows them to reengage with the content when necessary.
- Record your short lecture snippets using Zoom or narrating a PowerPoint slide show. Both Zoom and PowerPoint allow the instructor to be visible via webcam on the recording, and the Biggio Center strongly recommends this option to elevate instructional quality.
- Zoom Recordings saved "to the cloud" provide a link via e-mail and via the Zoom web portal (https://auburn.zoom.us). Share this link with Students.
- Videos recorded with PowerPoint or other videos should be uploaded to Panopto, with a link shared via Canvas. Use the following help guides to utilize Panopto for video sharing: Panopto Overview and Help guides.
- Provide guiding questions and review frameworks that accompany all lectures and other course materials to help students engage with these materials in a structured way
- Do not underestimate the benefit of uploading a written lecture or lecture outline that students can read rather than watch
- Set clear expectations for when and how students should engage with the course materials that you post online. Give extended windows of time (e.g., multiple days) for students to access, review, and respond to materials to accommodate student schedules affected by the crisis.
Resources for Virtual Labs
- Crowdsourced list of virtual labs, simulations, and data sets by subject from colleges and universities like UCLA, The University of Bath, Harvard, MIT and UC-San Diego, as well as government groups and startups.
- MERLOT has a collection of virtual labs across disciplines
