This post provides some resources for faculty resuming courses in February 2023. Per guidance from the Provost’s office, faculty are encouraged to be flexible and accommodating with themselves and their students. Some courses may resume as planned, and others may need to make pedagogical changes in order to accommodate faculty and student needs. These changes may be very different depending on your specific course and will require some flexibility in thinking through options. As you assess the needs of your students and courses we encourage you to adopt a flexible and student-centered approach.
During the first week of returning to classes, you may wish to hold conversations or conduct activities that allow you and your students to understand where you are at and what your needs are for the remainder of the semester. You may wish to provide a survey to your students to allow those who may not be attending classes in person to contribute and to allow for anonymous contributions as you plan for any changes you wish to make.
Ideas for what you might do during this first week back include:
- Reflect on where you are. Reflect on where your students are.
- It is ok to not require any academic work this next week. Students may not want to, or be able to, work on academic material in the first days/weeks.
- Don’t make any large adjustments. Don’t rewrite the syllabus now but do take notes on what you are hearing or thinking in terms of longer-term changes.
- Provide opportunities that allow students to come together, but without the necessity to speak. You could show a film or do some other activity that allows students to engage as they wish.
- If you are feeling a particular way, talk about it, and be open about it.
As you consider what changes you may need to make in your courses remember that you may need to reset expectations, but do keep in mind the following:
- Keep your course goals and learning objectives at the forefront of any redesigned assignments or activities.
- Communicate your plan to your students. (link includes template and email language that may be useful to copy/paste)
- Discuss needs with your students and try to be flexible with accommodations.
- Adopt practices and approaches that enable students to engage with you and other classmates as much as they are comfortable and able, and in ways that work for you and for them.
Some examples of changes you may wish to make either temporarily or in the long-term best interest of your course and students:
- Modify attendance policies to allow students to attend remotely or to take the time they need to process the events.
- Consider changing assignment due dates or the number/length of assignments. If you need to drop an exam or assignment, just do so.
- Recording or streaming class sessions to allow students who may need opportunities to revisit course content to do so or to allow students who were not able to be present on campus to access course sessions.
- Accommodating students who are not able to be on campus can be as simple as opening a Zoom session and/or recording your class. Most MSU classrooms are equipped with cameras and software capable of facilitating this style of teaching.
Some Additional Resources that may be helpful are listed below.
Making changes to your class
- Adapting a Syllabus During the Semester (provided by Ellen Moll, Director of Integrative Studies in Arts and Humanities)
- Guide to Modifying Your Course Mid-Semester
- Multimodal instructor guide – Contains recommendations for classroom set-up in a multimodal or hyflex-style course.
- EDLI Online and Hybrid Course Development Process – Considerations and guidelines for creating online or hybrid courses.
Capturing and Streaming Your Class
- MSU Hybrid Classroom Support & Tips – Guide to using MSU Classroom equipment to capture or stream your class.
- Live streaming in-person classes Guide – a short guide to learn the process of live streaming in-person classes.
- Zoom Meeting Top Ten – A reminder of the top ten most important settings on Zoom.
- Preferred Zoom Settings – Recommended Zoom settings for teaching.
- Recording Videos in Zoom and Uploading to MediaSpace – Learn how to record your Zoom Meetings to the cloud and then upload them to MediaSpace
Communicating With Your Students
- Template & Considerations for Student Notification in Temporary Course Modality Change – A guide to communicating with your students in the event of a temporary course modality change.
- Whole Spartan Framework
Further information and resources can be found on the #iteachMSU website. These resources will continue to be updated in the coming days so please check back if you do not find what you are looking for at first.
This post was co-authored by Makena Neal, Scott Schopieray, Jessica Sender and Jeremy Van Hof.
Source: Auto Draft
