Resilient Teaching

Start by identifying your essential learning goals for students and utilize backwards design to determine the content and assessments or activities necessary to achieve these goals. 

 Think through how you would engage with students during scheduled face-to-face class meetings or asynchronously through Blackboard.

• For face-to-face interactions, how might you adapt for an online environment if you are no longer able to meet in person?
• How will students engage with each other in person or online? As you evaluate your course activities, take a look at the course activity matrix from Carleton’s Perlman Center for Teaching and Learning. 

Consider designing your course in chunks or blocks that include both synchronous and asynchronous opportunities so that not all is lost if a disruption occurs that impacts course modality or a student’s ability to attend.

In thinking about course design and preparation, it is always important to continually examine expectations for student workload. Since with time we can all lose a bit of perspective on workload, consider taking advantage of the workload calculator designed by scholars from the Rice University Center for Teaching Excellence and the Wake Forest University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. WKU colleagues who have used it have found it extremely useful in estimating how much they were asking of students.

As always, communication is key. Be sure that you are clearly communicating your plans with students from the beginning of the semester so that they aren’t surprised if there is a disruption.

Things to include:

• how students will be updated (Blackboard course announcements, email, etc.)
• how class meetings will occur (synchronously or asynchronously)
• Zoom links for meetings that shift online