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We strongly recommend 3 guiding principles for remote teaching
- Keep it simple. Find the simplest technology solutions that allow for successful completion of your course this semester. Use tools that are practical for you to manage and accessible to your students.
- Use supported tools. We strongly recommend using the standard tools documented in this web site because:
- They are available for immediate use.
- Penn staff are prepared to provide support.
- Your students will be using the same set of tools across all of their courses.
- Prioritize asynchronous activities.
- Students' lives and schedules are being disrupted. It is possible that many will no longer be available at your originally scheduled class time; some may be located far outside the US Eastern time zone.
- With live online class sessions, it can be difficult to manage active participation from students. If you can't provide a productive, interactive experience for students, then a live session offers little value.
- Students may encounter technical problems when trying to join or participate in a live session with limited access to immediate tech support.
- Pre-recorded lectures, asynchronous discussions and other activies through Canvas provide maximum flexibility.
SAS Resource Hub for Instructors
This Canvas site provides a consolidated collection of resources for SAS instructors including
- Policies and Principles
- Communicating with Students
- Pedagogical Framing
- Cultivating a Creative Classroom
- Assessment
- Teaching Tools
- Student Resources
- Archive of Announcements and Messages sent to Instructors
Penn's Center for Teaching and Learning guide
Penn's Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Online Learning Initiative (OLI) have detailed guides for using the available online teaching tools (Canvas, Panopto, and Zoom).
- Please see CTL's Resources and Strategies for Teaching Remotely.
- CTL staff are prepared to offer pedagogical guidance to help you get the best learning outcomes while teaching remotely.
Stay in touch with your class
If you already have a system in place for contacting students (such as an email list or Canvas Announcements), use what is already working. If not, there are easy ways you can contact your students:
Use one of these methods to let your students know how to reach you and your TAs, when you will be available, and how soon they can expect responses. Also, consult with your teaching assistants about how you can stay in touch with them.
Use Canvas
Canvas sites are not being created automatically. They are created upon request from the instructor, teaching assistants or departmental staff
- Request a Canvas site through the Course Request form https://courserequest.library.upenn.edu/
- Login to Canvas with your PennKey at https://canvas.upenn.edu
- All registered students and teaching assistants will automatically have access to the course Canvas site.
- See details about basic and more advanced Canvas functionality.
Conduct online, asynchronous discussions
- Use the discussion board feature in Canvas to facilitate asynchronous, written discussion.
- Discussion boards can be configured for a variety of uses, including to allow anonymous posts.
- Use them as a way to post and reply to questions.
- Use discussion boards to engage students in review and comment on each other's work.
- Piazza is a popular tool for question and answer forums. As of 8/1/20 Piazza is available in all SAS Canvas sites. See details on how to setup Piazza in your Canvas site.
- Voicethread allows users to post videos for interactive comment.
- Instructors can post the lectures they record or other videos for students to comment.
- Students can record and submit assignments.
- Perusall allows instructors and students to comment on texts and online videos. Comments are attached to a specific point in the media, and are only visible to class members.
Record lectures and share them through Canvas
You can record lectures, software demonstrations, or other presentations and share them with your students through Canvas.
- Record simple audio or video recordings directly into a Canvas page or announcement.
- The Panopto video system in Canvas provides robust capabilities, including recording voice, video and screen capture.
Zoom web conferencing
See details about how to use Zoom for remote teaching, but be mindful of the limitations:
- With large classes, it can be difficult to manage active participation from students. If you can't provide a productive, interactive experience for students, then a live session offers little value. Consider recording lectures and using asynconous discussion tools such as Piazza for questions.
- Student schedules will be disrupted by the change to online teaching and residential living. Some students may be located far outside the US Eastern time zone and not available at your scheduled class time
- Students may encounter technical problems when trying to join or particpate in a live session and have limited access to technical support for live sessions.
Exams and assessment
Traditional proctored exams will not be practical for remote teaching this summer.
- For take-home exams, you can either use Canvas Quizzes or Assignments configured for online submission.
- Please talk with your department chair or departmental colleagues about how to develop new assessment strategies other than proctored exams.
Disabilities and accommodations
If you have a student who has disabilities that may limit their access to digital learning materials, contact Student Disabilities Services.