Teaching and Learning in Spring 2022

Teaching and learning at Clark in Spring 2022 may offer some unexpected twists. While the institution, faculty and students are committed and excited to return to campus, planning for the unexpected is never a bad idea. Below, find some tips about how to plan for some of these uncertainties now.

Click here for more general information on ITS support for Spring courses including information on Zoom, Panopto, student access to software, equipment loans, and much more.

Plan Now

Since we know that the semester may present unexpected changes, planning your approach to the uncertainty, and communicating your approach, can make a big difference for you and your students.

Consider now, in consultation with institutional guidelines, and your department, how you will deal with possible situations for the semester – including:

  • if you need to isolate and can’t teach synchronously,
  • if you need to isolate but can teach remotely in a synchronous modality,
  • if an individual, or small number of students, in your course need to isolate,
  • if a large number of your students need to isolate

If your hope is to continue to teach in these situations, look at your syllabus and course schedule with a critical eye. Identify content, activities and assessments that may work successfully if a short-term change in modality is necessary. Many activities can move into synchronous online (via Zoom), or asynchronous (via Moodle) delivery with a little adaptation, including lectures, discussions and small-group work.

Below are some common approaches to flexible academic continuity:

  • Considering your full course schedule, are there some stand-alone lessons that would be successful online that could be moved to any point in the semester? Having a lesson reserved that you can deploy when necessary can be a good technique for an uncertain semester.
  • If you’ve previously invited guests into your classroom (librarians, career services, guest speakers) and your students can successfully engage with this content remotely, moving it to a Zoom session could be a good option. Be sure to reach out to your guests early to ensure they have the availability to move their visit.
  • Movie and documentary screenings, with subsequent discussions, can be an activity that lends itself to distance learning. If you need to discuss how to make a movie available to your remote students, please read more about our digitization service here.

Communicate Early and Often

Communicating openly and regularly can help minimize an inbox onslaught of one-off questions, and more importantly, calm some of your students’ (and your) anxiety.

Course Distribution Lists

All courses have email distribution lists. The students registered for your class are automatically subscribed to the list (with their Clark email addresses.) You and your students can use this as a way to communicate with the whole class.

The email address for the distribution list follows the syntax: course-section-semester@lists.clarku.edu (ex. Biology 114, section 01, this Spring translates to biol114-01-S22@lists.clarku.edu). You will also find a link to the distribution list in your Moodle course and in the Address List in your email.  Please note that you must use your Clark University email to send messages using this distribution list.  The students in your course also have permission to use this email address.

Moodle Announcements Forum

Another easy way to communicate with your class is to use the Announcements forum in your Moodle course. Faculty and TAs can create a post in this forum, and all students will receive the message as an email to their Clark University email address.

ClarkYou Roster

Your class roster in ClarkYou will also give you the option to email all (or select) currently enrolled students in your course.

Think about Technology

As you begin to formulate a teaching plan for possible interruptions to your semester, it’s likely that technology will play a significant role. Thinking about your, and your students’ needs, and asking for support now, can help you should you need to adapt quickly.

Moodle

Even if you don’t use Moodle in a ‘regular’ semester, it can provide a central space for information, communication and resources for your students during a semester when changes may be needed. You can create and link to a Zoom room so that students have it available if necessary, you can post your syllabus or other resources, and make and collect important announcements. If you haven’t used Moodle before, here are some videos to get started.

Zoom

All Clark faculty have access to a fully licensed account (previously called Pro accounts), which allow meetings that can run for up to 24 hours, with up to 300 participants.

If you’ve managed to avoid Zoom over the last two years, we recommend spending some time familiarizing yourself with how to host and facilitate meetings. Setting up a Zoom link now, and talking with your students about how and when it may be used, can make adapting to one-off situations easier on everyone.

Software and Hardware

Do your students have specific software needs during this semester? All students have access to Zoom, Microsoft Office (including Teams), Moodle and more, but if you use specialist software, please read more about how ITS may be able to support them should they need to learn remotely.

When it comes to having the correct tools on hand, ITS can provide faculty with short and long-term loans of web-cameras and headsets (with microphones) for Zoom and recordings, along with other technology including video cameras, document cameras and drawing tablets.

Ask for Help

We’re here to support you all through the Spring Semester, so please don’t hesitate to reach out.

  • For questions about how to approach teaching this semester, you can contact Laurie Ross of CETL or Joanne Dolan
  • For technology questions, contact the Help Desk (helpdesk@clarku.edu) so that we can direct your request to the most appropriate department for the quickest response.
  • Not sure what questions to ask, or who to ask them of? Email Joanne Dolan to get pointed in the right direction.