Keep Teaching Manual

REVISION IN PROGRESS: This article contains useful information, but is being revised to reflect recent updates. Direct questions to TLT (tlt@winona.edu).

This Keep Teaching Manual accompanies our Adult and Continuing Education Keep Teaching website and is intended for instructors preparing courses for in-person, blended, and online delivery under conditions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes links to step-by-step instructions and helpful external resources for accomplishing common class management tasks online. All tools referenced in this manual are available to all Winona State University instructors and students.

Classroom social distancing

To provide students attending in-person class meetings this fall with sufficient space to socially distance, the maximum classroom occupancy has been reduced. Instructors choosing to meet their students in-person will need a suitable space and a plan for managing in-person activities that mitigate infection risk. Instructors should begin this planning process by deciding how to deliver each course they are scheduled to teach this fall. Decisions should be made in consultation with Chairs and Deans and will be subject to change (e.g., in-person meetings may move online in response to a virus flare-up).

Course delivery options

Fully in-person

Certain courses must be delivered fully in-person based on the nature of the learning activities (e.g., lab work, simulations, performance). Instructors may also strongly prefer to teach some courses fully in-person if a suitable classroom can be assigned. To convene in-person safely, the duration of class meetings may need to be reduced, social distancing guidelines and public health practices must be followed, and contract tracing must be supported. Consult the Fully In-person Course Toolkit for more information about preparing fully in-person courses.

Blended

Instructors may decide to continue meeting with students in-person, but less frequently than usual, moving a portion (e.g., 25% to 75%) of their contact time online. This is often described as a "blended" or "hybrid" course. There are many variations of this blended approach, but all require prioritizing and often redesigning a subset of class activities for in-person delivery while migrating other activities online. Although instructors may choose to meet with the entire class in-person, blended courses often limit in-person meetings to subgroups of students (e.g., study groups, project teams). Developing a blended course typically involves reserving in-person meetings for activities that maximize the benefits of being together physically. This might include:

• Problem-based learning. Work with students as they solve problems individually or in teams. Allocating in-person time to what students used to do as homework while migrating your lectures online is often referred to as a “flipped classroom” model.
• Student performance. Use in-person time with small groups of students for skills development and evaluation of behavioral competencies that benefit from immediate social contact and feedback (e.g., presentations, artistic performances).
• Project work. Use in-person time with small groups of students to support team and project-based learning activities.

To convene in-person safely, a suitable classroom would be scheduled, the duration of class meetings may need to be reduced, social distancing guidelines and public health practices must be followed, and contract tracing must be supported. Instructors using a blended approach must also decide what proportion of their online contact with students will be synchronous and asynchronous. Consult the Blended Course Toolkit for more information.

Mostly online

Instructors may decide to deliver a course online, except for one or two in-person meetings with students (e.g., orientation, final presentation), amounting to no more than 25% of their normal contact time. The rest of the course would be delivered fully online with synchronous and/or asynchronous online contact only. To convene in-person safely, a suitable classroom would be scheduled, the duration of class meetings may need to be reduced, social distancing guidelines and public health practices must be followed, and contract tracing must be supported. Consult the Mostly Online Course Toolkit for more information.

Fully online

Fully online courses include no in-person contact. All direct faculty instruction occurs online using synchronous and/or asynchronous methods. No classroom will be assigned to fully online classes. Social distancing and contact tracing plans are required only if online students engage in class-related activities that bring them near others (e.g., interviews, community service). When selecting a fully online format, instructors must decide what proportion of their contact time with students will be synchronous and asynchronous. Consult the Fully Online Course Toolkit for more information.

Synchronous contact

Online contact occurs through same-time interactions (e.g., Zoom meetings). These online meetings may be required or optional.

Asynchronous contact

Online contact occurs through different-time interactions (e.g., email, text messaging, discussion forums, online feedback). Although instructors may meet with students online at their convenience (e.g., online office hours), there are no scheduled, required online class meetings. Note that "asynchronous" does not mean with "self-guided." In online courses with 100% asynchronous contact, instructors spend just as much time communicating with students and guiding their learning as they would in a fully in-person class.

In-person meeting alternatives

Instructors who decide to host in-person meetings this fall as part of a fully in-person, blended, or mostly online course, must have a plan for managing students who can't attend some or all of those meetings for COVID-ID reasons.

COVID-19 non-attendance

Here are some examples of pandemic-related reasons students may be unable to attend in-person classroom meetings:

• A student is at high risk for contracting COVID-19 and/or concerned about exposure during in-person meetings
• A student contracts COVID-19 and is quarantined and/or hospitalized
• A student is quarantined due to exposure to others with COVID-19
• A student is experiencing mental health issues related to COVID-19

Managing non-attendance

Although course-specific plans, procedures, and policies will need to be developed by instructors, some general practices for handling these situations include:

• Live remote access. In some courses, it may be possible to allow students who can't attend in person to participate remotely (e.g., using Zoom) such that they can experience what's happening in the classroom and participate in real-time. Some classrooms and in-person meeting activities may preclude live, remote access.
• Access to meeting recordings. Instructors may decide to record all or some portion of their in-person meetings and make them available to students who can't attend.
• Substitute activities. Instructors may develop replacement online activities for students who can't attend in-person meetings.

Student choice

Giving all students the option to select an alternative for any in-person class meeting, sometimes referred to as the "HyFlex" model, is not recommended for general use this fall. Instead, it is recommended that remote access and substitute activities be offered on a case-by-case basis. If it is possible for all students in a course to meet all course requirements remotely, then the instructor should strongly consider teaching the course mostly or fully online to avoid the risk of in-person exposure.

Toolkits

• Fully In-person Course Toolkit
• Blended Course Toolkit
• Mostly Online Course Toolkit
• Fully Online Course Toolkit

Checklist

In-person	Blended or Mostly Online	Fully Online
Inform students of format decision	Inform students of format decision	Inform students of format decision
Identify students who need accommodation	Identify students who need accommodation	Identify students who need accommodation
Recognize COVID-19 symptoms	Recognize COVID-19 symptoms	Complete preliminary course redesign
Describe public health practices clearly	Describe public health practices clearly	Inform students of meeting details
Identify location for in-person meetings	Identify location for in-person meetings	Complete course redesign
Develop physical distancing plan	Complete preliminary course redesign
Develop contact tracing plan	Develop physical distancing plan
Inform students of meeting details	Develop contact tracing plan
	Inform students of meeting details
	Complete course redesign

External links

 

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