REMOTE AND ONLINE INSTRUCTION Modalities
Mines’ Polices and Recommendations for Remote Teaching and Learning
Policies
The following policies have been established to maintain the quality learning experiences our students expect and to provide instructors with guidance and support.
Recommendations
These guidelines are meant to provide faculty with direction to implement best-practices to meet our students’ needs and expectations of a high-quality Mines education during this period.
What is the difference between the two modalities?
Emergency Remote Instruction
Emergency remote instruction (also known as remote teaching) is most often a solution to developing and facilitating a course curriculum and materials in times of face-to-face class interruptions (e.g., a scheduled absence, a snow day or an emergency). Instruction is designed in a responsive manner by instructors and often delivered through instructor’s preferred technology to, under the circumstances, best meet course outcomes. Typically, content and activities are developed incrementally and added as needed based on the progress of instruction. Facilitating a course remotely in this manner helps provide continuity during a loss off face-to-face class time. When face-to-face instruction resumes the technology may continue to be used to a lesser degree to help students achieve the learning outcomes.
Official Mines Definition: Remote offerings provide live-class experiences through video conferencing technologies. Course materials and structure are created by the instructor with instructional support from the Trefny Center. These differ from Online in that they are essentially a normal F2F course delivered virtually. Faculty engage with students during a pre-determined set time for the class in a live setting. Recordings from the live session are made available for students to access later as needed.
Online Teaching and Learning
Online teaching and learning is the intentional design and facilitation that occurs when a course is moved to a fully online delivery modality. Instructional experiences are designed through a planned, collaborative process, over 12-15 weeks, with the support of an Online Learning Team (Online Learning Experience Designer, Library, ITS, and HIVE). The learning experiences and instructional materials in an online course are fully-developed before the start of a semester. These courses incorporate various instructional strategies and utilize various educational technologies that allow students to meaningfully interact with course content, the instructor and fellow students, while still allowing some flexibility in the students’ schedule. More information can be found on the Trefny Center website.
Official Mines Definition: These are courses intended and designed to be offered as an engaging fully-online experience. Course materials and structure are created by the instructor as the content author and are supported by the Trefny Innovative Instruction Center Team; various technologies are used to facilitate a highly interactive and engaging online learning experience for students. Although most online courses are designed to be asynchronously-paced (you complete assignments on your schedule by a set date/time), Mines’ online courses have structured times for students to be able to interact with faculty “live” in addition to resources and help to complete the course through office hours and other means in an online setting.
In summary, remote teaching occurs when the instructor has to transition the delivery of an on-campus course to an online formate in a short amount of time due to extenuating circumstances. A fully online course, however has been purposely designed for online teaching using online learning design principles and best practices. The next tabs illustrates some of the key differences between these two modes of course delivery.
Information adapted from Memorial University’s Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
Remote
Course materials and structure is created by the instructor with some support; learning experience varies depending on the instructor’s level of expertise with learning technologies.
Online
Course materials and structure is created by the instructor as the content author and is supported by Online Learning Team; various technologies are used to facilitate a highly interactive and engaging online learning experience for students. The typical commitment from the faculty member is 8-10 hours each week for approximately 12 weeks to develop each online course.
Remote
Asynchronous (i.e. recorded lectures) OR synchronous (i.e. real-time classes in the web conferencing applications) interactions with the support of the learning management system and VPN or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure support, if needed.
Online
Asynchronous (i.e. recorded lectures) and synchronous (i.e. real-time classes in the web conferencing applications) interactions with the support of the learning management system and various educational technology tools (VPN, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, third party tools, etc.). The delivery methods are dependent on the design of the course structure.
The Trefny Center will coach faculty during their first semester teaching the course. During this phase, the OLED will be actively observing interactions between the instructor and students and providing feedback. The faculty member and OLED will meet each week to discuss the course.
Remote
Students may be less technologically prepared, with access to a mobile device only and limited connectivity in their homes; instructional planning should reflect these limitations. Instructors may not have gone through formal training for online teaching and learning.
Online
Students know from the onset that all instruction will happen online, so likely have access to the technology that enables them to actively engage in the learning experience. Instructors will have gone through extensive training for online teaching and learning.
Remote
Given the current conditions, it is OK to rethink how you would have designed assessments in your on campus courses. The possiblities below outline options for creating and implementing assessments in a remote environment:
- Upload a PDF of an existing quiz or test onto Canvas as a quiz. Students digitally submit work via file upload or photo into Canvas. You can give them a set window to complete the assessment (e.g., between noon Monday and noon Tuesday). Consider students might need some flexibility on time.
- Create a hybrid version of an existing quiz or test: Integrate some questions into a Canvas quiz, while others remain manually submitted via a quiz as a file upload or photo.
- Create the entire quiz or test in Canvas. If you want to use full proctoring software, the assessment will need to be fully online.
Online
Course assessments are aligned to learning outcomes and created by the instructor and OLED over the online course build using the Canvas quizzing tool and/or a third party publisher or educational technology tool.
Remote
General use of the learning management system to communicate with students, relay course content, and administer assessments and grades. Use of web conferencing technologies for sychronous meetings.
Online
Advanced use of tools and components to facilitate social interaction of class and learning activities.
Remote
Mirrors expectations of face-to-face instruction were students and instructors meet at the same time, virtually.
Online
Students are expected to be self-directed with regular check-ins by the instructor to monitor progress and provide feedback.
Remote
Periodic; often instructor initiated over the course of the remote offering of the course
Online
Interaction is built into learning activities, projects, and assignements; addition of defined spaces within the learning environment for social interaction.
Getting Started with Emergency Remote Instruction
Readiness and Support
- Online Faculty Self-Assessment
- Online Student Readiness Assessment
- Checklist for Remote Teaching (SUNY)
- Trefny Center Support
- ITS Help Desk: 303-384-2345
- ITS Help Desk: Ticketing System