To begin, it is a good idea to gather information about the students in your course. Here are two main areas to consider before getting started with the design:

1. Who are the students?

Start by identifying what the students:

• Have experienced with a university course, ideally by asking them (e.g., first year versus fourth year students);
• Should already know (e.g., prior course knowledge);
• Have in terms of access to technological tools (e.g., do they have earphones, do they have a smartphone with a camera that works?), ideally by asking them.

These will become considerations as you make decisions in the course. For most students, the answers to these questions will likely be as expected, but sometimes surprises arise. These include the students who would come and speak with you on the first day and ask you about particular accommodations. Remember that they cannot do this as easily under these new circumstances. Their voices may effectively be silenced by circumstances. Asking some questions at the outset will help you avoid pitfalls that could exclude some students, who may not communicate with you if there is a concern or a gap.

2. How could students help?

Students can be involved in many ways. For example:

1. Through questionnaires you can ask for their opinions and experiences before, during, and at the end of a course. You can use these examples of class surveys (pre, during and post-course) in Google ]Forms. The examples provided can be copied and modified for your own purpose.
2. Students can help create course content as teaching assistants, volunteers, or in other roles as tutors (e.g., demonstration in videos, problem-sets).
3. Students can be involved in a number of ways, as depicted in this article, especially as part of the decision making process. Consider the following articles depicting different roles of students in course development:

• • students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education
  • students as consultants, specifically on the current situation
  • students as collaborators and as co-creators

Additional Readings and Resources

Reflecting on your teaching

eCampusOntario developed a program called Ontario Extend, a professional learning program that “aims to empower educators to explore a range of emerging technologies and pedagogical practices for effective online and technology-enabled teaching and learning.”

All of the modules in the Ontario Extend program are beneficial for enhancing your teaching practice and we encourage you to explore them all. For the context of transitioning from in-person teaching to remote teaching, the “Technologist” module can help with the integration of technology into your teaching and learning practice and the “Curator” module can support the incorporation of a variety of learning resources into your courses.

Analyzing the learning environment

Knowledge of the environment where teaching and learning will occur is fundamental to informing the way you will teach your course and the options for how learning will take place in those environments. In a face to face environment, for example, an auditorium class environment is favourable for lectures, but not very conducive to a collaborative, active learning approach to teaching. A remote teaching and learning environment best lends itself to a blended design approach as it usually uses mixed modes of delivery and interaction between instructors and students.

The Teaching and  Innovation team has adapted a remote teaching checklist to help you consider some of the remote environment options available as substitutions to your traditional in person teaching environment.

A valuable resource you may also consider reviewing is the University of Ottawa’s blended course design model. This resource provides interactive explanations of the steps involved in a typical blended course design process and may prove as a helpful visual representation of the considerations that come into play when designing a blended learning course.

Up next

In the next chapters, we will address how:

• To identify the course’s essential learning outcomes (or topics)
• Content will be shared with students
• Assessment will work (e.g., practice, feedback, assignments, exams)
• Communication will work in the course (professor-student, student-student)
• Students can become effective at learning in this format
• To address wellness (e.g., mental and physical health)
• Teaching assistants can contribute
• To address equity during this remote teaching/learning experience

Please feel free to contact us at any time with questions, suggestions, and concerns by emailing coffeehouse@laurentian.ca