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Tag: online teaching

Teach Your Students Active Reading: Assign Texts in Blackboard with Hypothesis

bookshelves that spell the word "read"

by Lauren Horn Griffin, Department of Religious Studies Your Blackboard course menu includes Hypothesis on your “build content” menu. Hypothesis works with files you add to your course. It also works with any website. Hypothesis is a teaching tool that allows you to have your students “show” how they are reading your course content. With the Hypothesis tool, anyone in the course may add annotations with text, images, websites, and LaTeX equations. Anyone in the course can reply to those […]

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Using Discord + GitHub to Organize Small Group Active Learning

tips of a fiber optic cable

by Nathan Loewen, Faculty Technology Liaison & Department of Religious Studies Based on an interview and materials shared by Dr. Traci M. Nathans-Kelly, College of Engineering at Cornell University I recently spoke to Dr. Traci Nathans-Kelly, who is a partner teacher for Games Design courses at Cornell University, where they have used Discord for Spring 2020 and 2021. This was a unique challenge for these courses that rely heavily on in-person teams and live playtesting. Dr. Walker White is the instructor […]

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Discord App Adds Options for Remote Learning & Teamwork

by Nathan Loewen, Faculty Technology Liaison & Department of Religious Studies Someone responded to the survey for Last Week’s Teaching in 2020 with a comment about the Discord app. It turns out plenty of people use Discord for teaching and learning (Several teachers in France and Quebec are adopting Discord). Here are the experiences of four people at UA. (Please continue to share your ideas and experiences here, and your entry could spark another cross-campus search for teaching innovation!) Creating […]

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Three Ways to Construct Supportive Online Courses

two people talking at a table

by Jaimie Choi, Department of Psychology As COVID-19 swept the country, many of us have transitioned to virtual teaching, using diverse platforms that deliver online lectures. Unfortunately, despite the convenience of being able to lead a lecture in our pajama pants, there are many studies that cast light on the psychological pitfall that follows being trapped in a rectangular virtual space for an extended period of time. One of the neglected elements from a student’s perspective is that they lose […]

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Social Reading Supports Student Success (e.g., Hypothesis)

screenshot of a hypothesis page

by Nathan Loewen, Department of Religious Studies Maintaining engagement and a sense of community is valuable no matter how strange and extenuated the conditions for teaching and learning. 24 UA courses used the new Hypothesis tool in Blackboard (found in your “build content” menu). Hypothesis allows teachers and learners to add a layer of commentary over PDF files and web pages. At UA in Fall 2020, 1004 students and 48 teachers made 11,863 annotations on 547 assignments. If you do […]

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Social Reading in Undergraduate Courses

hypothesis logo, surrounded by LMS logo

by Matt Smith (Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies), Andrew Deaton (History), and Camille Morgan (Anthropology) How might a class read together remotely? One way is to assign a reading and then have students respond on a discussion board. Compared to Blackboard’s Discussion Board, the Hypothesis app has both drawbacks and benefits. One drawback, for example, is that the tool has only a few built-in options, including annotation and highlighting. There are, however, several specific pedagogical advantages to using Hypothesis […]

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Transition Multiple-Choice Exams Online: A Large-Enrollment Solution

empty notebook with pencil and pencil sharpener

by Diana Leung, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry In 2020 the changes brought about by COVID-19 forced me to transition my normally face-to-face classes to an online format. This fall semester I teach two sections of a freshman Introductory Chemistry class (CH 104), each with about ~200 students, and an Organic Chemistry II (CH 232) sophomore class with ~130 students. One of the worries I had when transitioning online was how to give exams to this large student population. Ultimately, […]

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Academic Support in Our New Online Context

large tree with branch supported by hand scuplture

By Amy Dayton, Department of English Many faculty members rely on UA’s academic support programs to provide students with the individualized help they need outside of class. Despite the current crisis, the UA Libraries, Capstone Center for Student Success, and UA Writing Center continue to offer support to help students meet their academic goals and to supplement your classroom instruction. “University Libraries faculty and staff have been redeployed to critical priorities to support all UA students, staff, and faculty in […]

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So You’re an Online Student! Tips for Success

blue sky dotted with hot air balloons

by Dr. Jennifer Roth-Burnette, Capstone Center for Student Success 1. Treat online study like a job. Plan 1.5–3 study hours per credit hour each week. If you are taking 12 credit hours, that’s 18–36 hours per week, depending on the difficulty of the courses you are taking. It’s a lot, but you can do it! Plan to spend the most time on the most difficult classes. 2. Manage your time proactively. Treat your online course like a job, and schedule […]

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