
How is planning a remote course unique? What best practices should be considered when designing a course that will take place remotely in the midst of tumultuous times? This article aims to provide tips and techniques for planning your next remote course.
Whether you start designing your remote course using feedback from last term’s students or you build as you go with suggestions from this term’s students, inviting your students to give input in the design process will do a lot to help the course run smoothly.
Consider issues of equity and access in remote learning
A few ways to encourage student input as you design your remote course:
Create a negotiated syllabus with your students during the first week of class where they will have a say in the course goals, assessments, assignments, and activities. You don’t have to make everything negotiable, and a critical part of the planning process is to identify the scope of choice. This is a great way to build community and get student buy-in around course requirements. “The Negotiated model is totally different from other syllabuses in that it allows full learner participation in selection of content, mode of working, route of working, assessment, and so on. It should by this means embody the central principle that the learner’s needs are of paramount importance” (Clarke 1991).
Imagine that a large box arrives at your house, and when you open it, it is full of parts for you to assemble, but there are no instructions and no pictures of what the final object is meant to be, so you are stuck trying to make sense of all the parts without an understanding of what the whole should look like or what the end goal is. This is how students often feel when they enter a course that does not include student learning outcomes or clear goals.
You may be familiar with Student Learning Outcomes, also sometimes called Learning Objectives or Course Goals. Your course may have pre-set outcomes already determined, or you might need to identify outcomes. Consider these the foundation, blueprint, or roadmap of your course. Student Learning Outcomes provide a clear path that everyone in the course is working toward.
Good Student Learning Outcomes should be observable and measurable so that you can look at student work and see how it meets the goals of the course. For a guide to writing effective student learning outcomes, check out this “Assessment Methods” article.
Some questions to consider when creating your Student Learning Outcomes (SLO):
Think back to that mysterious box that arrived at your house with no instructions. What if the box did include instructions, but the materials in the box didn’t match the instructions? What if pieces were missing or all the pieces were there, but the instructions skipped big steps?
This is analogous to what happens in our courses when we assign work that does not align with the course goals or when our assessments do not match what has been taught in the class. It’s difficult for students to understand why the work is necessary or relevant or how their assessments reflect what they are learning.
Some assessments are intended to help you and students see how much progress you’ve all made toward meeting the course goals, and other assessments are meant to measure whether students are ready to move on to the next stage, whether that’s the next topic in your course or another course altogether. Not all assessments need to be graded. Some can be used as practice that helps you adjust your expectations and help students know what to focus on as they are progressing through the course.
It’s often helpful to give students opportunities for peer review, self-reflection, and suggestions rather than a letter or number grade on those assessments that are meant to serve as learning tools for future work. Research shows that grades are often demotivating for students and can be confusing when students try to improve their grade in future assignments. While we often look at grades as inevitable and ubiquitous, they are relatively new as a standard practice in higher education (Schinske & Tanner, 2014).
Some questions to consider when creating assessments and assignments:
For more ideas for creating successful assessments in your remote course, check out “Remote Assessment Strategies” and “Encouraging Student Agency through Alternative Assessments.”
When asking students to complete large assignments such as term papers, presentations, group projects, lab experiments, final exams or research studies, it is helpful to break these assignments into smaller tasks in order to “scaffold” the work and support the final product.
Another important aspect of scaffolding is making sure there is continuity between synchronous and asynchronous aspects of the class. For example, if students are assigned readings and discussions on D2L to complete on their own time, if you ask them to meet with you via Zoom, that group time should relate to those readings and discussions. Maybe that means scheduling time for Q&A about the asynchronous work before moving on to new material or providing the new material in advance of the Zoom session so students are ready to discuss it in real time.
Even before you meet your students, it’s important to think about how you can engage with them, give them feedback, and check in with them regularly. Building community and a sense of instructor presence goes a long way in helping students feel supported and part of a community.
Here are some suggested ways to stay in touch with your students:
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.We'd love to hear from you. Full-service remote support is available to all PSU instructors through the Office of Academic Innovation. Contact the virtual Faculty Support Desk, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm.