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Crowd-Sourced, Curated Resources for Faculty

For information on our campus's response to the COVID-19 outbreak, please visit the Emergency Preparedness website.

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Here we provide strategies, tools, and resources to facilitate remote instruction and learning. Each link will take you to resources to help you get set up with that particular activity or tool. It is important to note that these tools and resources are NOT specifically supported by the Office of Information Technology, but have been provided here as supplementary resources that may prove useful to some users. 

Information and resources listed here will continue to be updated as the campus works to provide additional tools, resources, and strategies. Last update: March 17, 2020, 12:00 pm

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Going Online in a Hurry: What to Do and Where to Start | Chronicle of Higher Ed

6 steps to prepare your students (and yourself) for online learning. Read the article from Chronicle of Higher Ed here.

Teaching Effectively During Times of Disruption | Stanford Resource

This google doc, originally created for Stanford departments, offers a number of good points related to shifting online. Read the document from Stanford Resource here.

Bringing Your Course Online | Resources Compiled by the MLA

The Modern Language Association has compiled a list of strategies for teaching remotely here.

The iDEA Book

​​ Educational research and practice examples for distinctive course design

Fair Use 

​​Fair use is making it possible for teachers to read books to students, for librarians to make films and textbooks available to learners and researchers and to read to little ones during storytime, for employees to use copyrighted imagery in their work presentations, and much, much more. This page includes an aggregated list of copyrighted materials you can use to teach online as well as a number of best practices.

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Planning for Remote and Virtual Labs - Resource List

UCLA is compiling a comprehensive google doc of resources to help researchers and instructors plan to move lab instruction and activities online.

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Slack

UC Merced Professor Russ McBride recommends SLACK as an alternative to Zoom and CatCourses for group discussion. He says: 

Group discussion is not easy in Zoom, and CatCourses offers limited options in its “Discussion” board. There is a worry among instructors that their email inboxes will soon be bombarded with student conversations now that those can’t happen in person. Among various tools that can fill this gap is one called, “Slack.” 

Slack has over 12 million users, is the dominant communications tool in Silicon Valley and among tech startups right now. Its popularity stems from its ability to organize discussions, make them easily searchable along with any files or links, and integrate with many third-party tools (like Google Drive, Dropbox, Workday, and many more). Slack typically reduces meetings by 23% and emails by 32%.

For our purposes here, the improved teamwork efficiency could prove helpful in coordinating class and lab discussions. Conversation topics can be organized into “Channels” and important files or links can be “pinned” for easy access. A free account on Slack has enough flexibility for most campus groups and classes. Paid Slack is available if departments wish to buy it, the vendor is available in Oracle and an 85% educational discount can be applied for here: https://slack.com/help/articles/206646877-Apply-for-the-Slack-for-Education-discount You can find Slack tutorials (among other places) here: https://slack.com/resources/using-slack/slack-tutorials

Slack's success as the “email killer” has spawned competitors, chief among them is Microsoft’s “Teams” application (see below), and another tool also similar to Slack called “Twist” that allows for further organization of conversations in “threads.” A different kind of application called Voice Thread allows students to post dynamic text or voice comments to slides or video, allowing for more remote interactive discussion.

TechSmith SnagIt and TechSmith VideoReview

TechSmith is helping organizations and academic institutions who are preparing for prolonged absences and/or campus closures due to COVID-19. We are offering free access and expanded usage of tools that help enable business and educational continuity.

Their screen recording tool, TechSmith Snagit, and their asynchronous collaboration platform, TechSmith Video Review, will be free to use through the end of June 2020 to any organization that needs it. Find more information and download the tools here.

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Advice to those about to teach online because of the corona-virus | Tony Bates

8 things to consider about transitioning to online teaching due to coronavirus. Read the article by Tony Bates here.

Practical advice for instructors faced with an abrupt move to online teaching (opinion) | Inside Higher Ed

 Tips for an abrupt, temporary move to online instruction. Read the article by Inside Higher ed here.

8 Lessons Learned from Teaching Online | Educate

8 tips to improve online learning techniques. Access the video by Educate here.

"I Will Survive" Teaching Online | Inside Higher Ed

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Understanding Network Impacts of Increased Online Learning

CENIC has prepared this information as a resource for members who have moved to or are contemplating moving to, online instruction

National Research and Education (R&E) Networks (also known as NRENs) together provide critical communications infrastructure for universities and research institutes worldwide. Read more about how they are supporting the global challenges of the novel coronavirus.