Prepare your courses for trimester 2 and possible shifts in COVID-19 alert levels.
We know these are difficult times, and staff and student well-being and health must be our first priority.
Being prepared, designing your courses well and making a back-up plan enables learning to continue even in times of disruption.
The guidance and resources below will help you to ensure that your courses are well prepared and able to adapt to COVID-19 alert level shifts as required.
Being prepared, designing your courses well and making a back-up plan enables learning to continue even in times of disruption.
The guidance and resources below will help you to ensure that your courses are well prepared and able to adapt to COVID-19 alert level shifts as required.
Teaching in dual-mode
In 2021, most courses are being offered in dual-mode delivery. This means that courses are delivered in a way that supports both in-person and remote learning. This can be tricky to execute, so our best advice is to keep it simple. Focus on empathising first, empowering second, and engaging third. The guidance and resources below are intended to help with this.
Note: VUW staff can access the university's academic policy provisions for 2021 via the staff intranet.
Preparing your course using the Course Continuity Checklist
The COURSE CONTINUITY CHECKLIST outlines some simple and practical ways you can help students navigate and engage with your blackboard courses.
Your Faculty Toiere Blackboard course provides further detail, as well as guidance and resources to help with the set up of our course. If you are struggling to access your Faculty Toiere Blackboard course, contact your Faculty Learning Designer.
Using video for teaching
Managing teaching in person and remote students concurrently
Watch the video: mixed mode classroom teaching session. Detailed video guides coming soon...
For specific advice about how to manage dual delivery in your course, contact your Faculty Learning Designer.
Making a plan and informing your students
Planning for potential disruption
Our most likely disruption in 2021 is a change in COVID-19 alert levels. More generally, having resilient courses means being prepared for all kinds of disruptions, including natural disasters and unforeseeable personal circumstances. Having a plan is central to teaching resilience.
Our most likely disruption in 2021 is a change in COVID-19 alert levels. More generally, having resilient courses means being prepared for all kinds of disruptions, including natural disasters and unforeseeable personal circumstances. Having a plan is central to teaching resilience.
Creating a course level COVID-19 teaching plan
Ensuring students are well informed of how a course will be delivered at each COVID-19 level is critical to support their academic planning and overall wellbeing. You can achieve this by creating a "COVID-19 Teaching Plan" item in your Blackboard course to let students know what to expect in your course if there is a shift in alert level.
Course level information provided to students must only include information that is directly relevant to the delivery of courses in which they are currently enrolled. For information on wider university Covid plans and communications, students should be directed to the central student Covid-19 information site on the university website - https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/covid-19
Key information to provide students includes a course level plan for:
Ensuring students are well informed of how a course will be delivered at each COVID-19 level is critical to support their academic planning and overall wellbeing. You can achieve this by creating a "COVID-19 Teaching Plan" item in your Blackboard course to let students know what to expect in your course if there is a shift in alert level.
Course level information provided to students must only include information that is directly relevant to the delivery of courses in which they are currently enrolled. For information on wider university Covid plans and communications, students should be directed to the central student Covid-19 information site on the university website - https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/covid-19
Key information to provide students includes a course level plan for:
- Physical or virtual lectures / teaching sessions
- The delivery of science labs, computer labs or field trips (where applicable)
- Tutorial delivery
- Office hours or drop-in support
- Assessment delivery, feedback and grading
An example of how a COVID-19 Teaching Plan alert might look in a Blackboard course. A template table can be downloaded below.
Adding your COVID-19 teaching plan to Blackboard
The 'package' below can be downloaded and imported to any course to add a COVID-19 teaching plan section to your course. This will download a table for you to fill in with course specific information about how you will teach the course at each COVID level.
Once loaded into your course you will need to read the instructions, refer to university COVID-19 site for updated information, amend the required text in the COVID-19 plan table for this course and then delete the instructions.
To load the COVID-19 teaching plan package to your course:
The 'package' below can be downloaded and imported to any course to add a COVID-19 teaching plan section to your course. This will download a table for you to fill in with course specific information about how you will teach the course at each COVID level.
Once loaded into your course you will need to read the instructions, refer to university COVID-19 site for updated information, amend the required text in the COVID-19 plan table for this course and then delete the instructions.
To load the COVID-19 teaching plan package to your course:
- Download the COVID-19 course plan package ExportFile_VUW_Bb_Basic2020_English_20210623041314.zip
- Open your Blackboard course
- Go to Control Panel > Packages and Utilities > Import Package / View Logs
- Import Package
- Select a package: Browse for the package file you downloaded from here (file name above)
- Under Select Course Materials, tick the following boxes: Content Areas, Navigation Settings (this will also tick the Settings box, that's fine, just let it do that)
- Submit
- You will get an email when the package has successfully loaded to your course.
- You may then want to move this item up in the menu to the course Information section of your course menu.
- Update the items with information relevant to your course and remove the 'How to create a course level COVID plan for students' instructions.
Being ready to move online
Get Online Quickly Checklist
Key tools are available for you to work and teach online if need be.
Follow these quick actions to make sure you are ready and have the right tools to make the online switch
Key tools are available for you to work and teach online if need be.
Follow these quick actions to make sure you are ready and have the right tools to make the online switch
- Complete the ‘Work and Teach at Home’ checklist. Do you have the right access and equipment?
- Create a Zoom account and go through the staff Zoom guide.
- Test Zoom, does your microphone and webcam work?
- Get to know VStream to record lectures, or more importantly, create concept videos from home.
- Check your Blackboard course. Do your students know who you are, how to contact you, who your tutors are, who is the class rep and what key dates are coming up.
- Read the Course Continuity Checklist, and associated guides, and review against your own courses.
Below are some things to think about, tasks to do and advice on how to prepare and then continue working under disrupted circumstances.
What do I need to do to be prepared for working remotely?
Have you thought through and tested the scenario that you may need to work remotely or from home?
Consider:
The work and teach from home checklist is a start point to understand if you are ready to continue working from home.
Talk to your Head of School/Manager if your checklist reveals gaps.
Consider:
- where will you be?
- what devices, information and connection will you have?
- what systems are you going to need to access?
- how are you going to carry out tasks and responsibilities when not on campus or face to face?
The work and teach from home checklist is a start point to understand if you are ready to continue working from home.
Talk to your Head of School/Manager if your checklist reveals gaps.
| work_and_teach_from_home_checklist pdf |
Academic Continuity and Teaching Resilience
What do we mean by resilience?
Resilience is a well-known concept but is used differently across the disciplines. In psychology, it is how individuals respond to a psychologically disruptive event (e.g., Bonanno et al. 2010). In education, it is how an individual is able to learn through adversity (e.g., Downey 2008). In the disaster risk reduction realm, it is how individuals and communities maintain or return to ‘normal functions’ after a crisis (e.g., McManus et al 2007). In this work, we define resilience as the ability of academics to utilise core strategies that enable them to continue L&T during a long-term disruption, such as a disaster (known here as: resilience to disruption).
For more information about the research work done after the Christchurch Earthquake read through the Resilience to Disruption Project Case study.
For more information about the research work done after the Christchurch Earthquake read through the Resilience to Disruption Project Case study.