If you are planning on delivering remotely, it might be useful to develop a plan for how you will best do so. The below are some suggestions on considerations before you begin remote delivery.


1. Plan what you would the students like to achieve

One early first step might be just to put together a plan for the remote teaching period. This might be no more than some rough notes of what you would like students to do or what you would like to achieve with them during their time away from campus.

Plans help to prepare students for what’s coming down the line, gives them the chance to best manage their time, gives them a sense of your expectations and helps them prepare for what’s coming up.

Your plan might be nothing more than saying something like, “Over the next 2 weeks there will be 4 remote classes with an assessment due at the end of that period” or “I will be uploading some notes on the usual day of each class and expect you to be ready for a discussion when we all return to campus”

When you have decided on this plan, communicate this to students as clearly as possible. 

2. Establish everyone's responsibilities right away.

Expanding on the above, you could offer more detail on what you specifically expect students to be doing on an ongoing basis during the remote teaching period. This could potentially take the form of some kind of  “checklist” or series of bullet points or tips. Some illustrative examples:

  • Review all notes uploaded to Canvas
  • Watch the screencasts uploaded over the next 2 weeks
  • Attend a live online lectures scheduled for Monday and Wednesday
  • Complete Assignment 1 before the end of next week
  • Etc.
Doing this makes it explicit to students what exactly they should be doing while they are not on-campus (which might not be as clear to them as it would be when they’re on campus).  You could, in this context, consider providing learners with some kind of a schedule also (e.g.,. “in week 1, do this…”, etc.) -- alternatively, of course, you might decide to leave it more up to students themselves as to how to schedule things and manage their own time (see below).


3. Think about providing students with some of what they need “up-front”

In some cases -- and depending also on the approach taken -- it might be appropriate to provide students with as much as you can (notes, screencasts, etc.) right from the start.

Doing things this way allows students, for example, to upfront their learning efforts or to otherwise pace their learning in a context where they might not be able to work towards their learning goals in a consistent way over time. Some staff might also find this to be a more efficient use of their own time-- by, e.g., doing a “bulk upload” of content to Canvas or creating a number of similar resources in one sitting -- as well as freeing up time or marking off time to provide other kinds of support and/or feedback during the remote teaching period.