Distance Education

Continuity of Classes: Resources

---

In the event of a situation that prevents classes from physically meeting together, there are tools and resources at your disposal to continue the educational process. Many of these tools may already be familiar to you and your students as these are widely used on campus. Although all of the resources mentioned here are available to all WCU faculty, staff, and students, internet access may not be available to every student. Therefore, please exercise some flexibility in delivering instruction remotely.

Please note, these options are intended to temporarily maintain course continuity; they do not represent recommendations for fully online courses.

Preparation

In the following series of charts, we have a number of tutorials specific to certain parts of D2L. Feel free to advance to the chart which best reflects your area of need. Additionally, WCU offers all faculty free D2L subscription training with a range of comprehensive video trainings tiered to match your skill level.

Getting Started

Preparation Steps	Tools and Tutorials	Other Considerations
Log in to D2L to access your courses. Then, activate your D2L course for each course section you teach.	Getting Started in D2L	Sign in to D2L using your WCUPA credentials. D2L course sites already exist for each section but may not be activated for students to view. If you haven't already done so, activate each section.
Create a communication plan for your students.	D2L Help: Classlist D2L Help: Creating a Class Announcement Jabber (for faculty with a WCU assigned telephone number)	How You're Communicating: Include a preferred communication channel and a realistic timeline for replies. If emailing students, use your WCU email.    What You're Communicating: Highlight any changes in class format, schedule, needed technologies, and due dates.    When considering your communication channel and attendance policies, remember that not all students have equal access to technology or other resources for the revised format of your classes.

Delivering Course Content

Consider a combination of the following options to deliver course content to your students in alternate modalities:

Preparation Steps	Tools and Tutorials	Other Considerations
Upload and manage course content (i.e. assigned readings, etc.) within your D2L course.	D2L Help: Content Library Services: Distance Students Library Services: Linking and Embedding Content	Keep in mind fair use policies for copyright material.
If you plan to provide lecture content for students to watch remotely, generate video recordings.	Panapto Capture (allows you to record your voice and your screen, complete simple edits, and upload your video to a place where students can view it in D2L.)	Consider whether it’s best to continue holding class synchronously (at the same time as always) or asynchronously (allowing students to log-in on their own schedules.) Keep in mind that during periods of disruption, students may not be available during your typically scheduled class time.
If you plan to hold synchronous class meetings, create a Zoom meeting and disseminate the invitation to students.	Zoom Research-Based Practices For Zoom: Faculty Guide Research-Based Practices for Zoom: Student Guide Zoom Tips for Fitness and Music Classes	Instructors and students can join the same meeting and share audio and video. Zoom has features that include screen sharing, presentation mode, and breakout groups. It is highly recommended that you record the session for students.
If you plan to incorporate asynchronous discussion activities, establish spaces for students to interact and engage with one another.	D2L Help: Discussion Boards	Ask questions that encourage reflection, interaction, and critical thinking.

Assessing Your Students

Preparation Steps	Tools and Tutorials	Other Considerations
Establish a method of assignment submission.	D2L Help: Assignments	Ensure that all students have access to and are aware of this method.
Consider alternatives for laboratory, field-study, clinical, research, and other experiential components whenever possible.	LinkedIn Learning (WCU students, faculty, and staff have free, unlimited access to this digital library of over 180,000 videos.)	Think about ways in which experiments can be designed in an unsupervised setting or consider whether a video demonstration of an experiment may serve some part of a laboratory course.
Establish a procedure to evaluate and assess student learning in a digital space.	D2L Help: Quizzes Turnitin Research-Based Practices: Academic Integrity	D2L Quizzes offers a variety of question types from multiple-choice, to short answer, to math-based questions. Building questions in your question library is a great way to organize your questions and create a test bank to provide different versions of each quiz for students.
Establish a procedure for disseminating student grades and providing feedback on student work.	D2L Help: Gradebook	Be sure to communicate with students when they should expect grades and feedback on assignments/ assessments.

Accessibility

Throughout all these steps, keep accessibility top of mind. Information Services & Technology has collaborated with campus constituents to develop plans to comply with ADA standards as they apply to information technology. Additionally, the WCU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has put forth the following Accessibility Statement  in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Office of Digital Learning and Innovation has created the following resource guide to aid in creation of accessible online materials.

Additional Resources

• Work Continuity Webinar Series- D2L Services, The Office of Digital Learning and Innovation and FAST (Faculty & Staff Training) are pleased to offer a series of webinars on topics that will help faculty transition to alternate modalities. To register for these (and other) sessions, visit FAST Training.

Weekly Faculty Update: Archive

Each week, the Office of Digital Learning and Innovation, in conjunction with IS&T, is distributing an email newsletter to all faculty with resources and information to assist the continuation of classes in alternate modalities. Previous newsletters can be found below:

• Week of April 20
• Week of April 4
• Week of March 30
• Week of March 23
• Week of March 16

Additionally, we distribute a monthly student update, full of guidelines to approaching online learning. Previous monthly updates can be found below:

• April 2020
• March 2020

Institutional Support and Assistance