What tips do you have for your colleagues for doing this successfully?

• Don't underestimate our students' current need to see/interact with faculty on a weekly or bi-weekly basis that students took for granted in face-to-face classes. When I teach a synchronous class, if it's doable I include a video of myself while I share my powerpoint (WebEx and Virtual Classroom and Zoom, all let you). And a couple of times I couldn't (needed to use a computer without a camera) so I had a short social using a different method. (Naomi Gurevich).

• Easy resources to send students about specific writing issues (Worth Weller)

  Here is a link to a shared PFW folder that contains a wide variety of writing help files (this is in OneDrive - login with your PFW credentials). There are about 40 help files, including help with MLA and APA issues, quoting, conciseness and clutter, thesis statements, topic sentences, introductions and conclusions. These are mostly pdf documents downloaded from Purdue OWL and other sources, include a few short PPT lectures.

  To save time when grading, Worth will send something like: “I see you are struggling a bit with in-text citations: here is some help” – then attach the appropriate help file. Or, “Your paragraphs are rather large, and thus it is a bit difficult to see your main points – here is some help with paragraph focus” and then attach the two files about paragraphing. This saves a ton of time and as effective as writing out complete thoughts.

• Adding narration to PowerPoint slide show:

For Faculty: A narrated powerpoint can be effective (attached to an email and/or put in Blackboard) for giving assignment instructions. That way you can "show" highlights, samples and formatting/forms to use in the assignment (Bob Barrett)

For students: This is also an effective way for students to prepare presentations. These links can help you or your students use ppt with narration effectively (Farah Combs):

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/record-a-slide-show-with-narration-and-slide-timings-0b9502c6-5f6c-40ae-b1e7-e47d8741161c

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pyEwYiNoPdw (3 minute for Macs)

• Invite a speaker! This is a much easier ask when you are asking them to talk with a class virtually than travel to campus. (Matthew Perkins Coppola)

• Teaching Moments: As faculty we know that almost anything can become a "teaching moment." Jeannie DiClimenti exemplifies that even in the face of the quarantine. She says:

We had a good intern experience even in the face of the quarantine. The interns learned about Telehealth; I found some videos that explained the ins and outs of online mental health therapy (by a psychologist noted as a telehealth experts); one even had some people role playing sessions. We talked about the differences between therapy groups and support groups and they had the opportunity to co-facilitate the online support groups that we did. we decided as a group that keeping some online stuff would be a good idea even when things are back to normal next academic year. Of the six interns, three are graduating this semester but the other three want to take the internship again next year. We also put together brief videos on self care along with handouts on anxiety and coping that we made available for students.

• Using online discussion forums effectively (Worth Weller)

With the entire PFW campus now trying to replicate the best of face to face teaching in a virtual environment, Blackboard’s Discussion Forums can play a key role. The following article from Inside Higher Ed examines best (and worse) practices.

Worth Weller's less than 10 minute video about creating effective Brightspace Discussions

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/03/27/new-approaches-discussion-boards-aim-dynamic-online-learning