Remote Teaching
Most classes for fall quarter 2020 will be offered remotely, either as the only option or a complement to in-person instruction. To help BioSci faculty succeed in an online environment, we’ve created this page as a resource that will be updated continually as new information is available. There are a variety of tips, tools, and best practices to make the remote learning environment successful for both you and your students. Below, we have included information on technological needs, as well as instructional suggestions and resources.
Remote Teaching Resources
Please review the DTEI Homepage for consolidated resources from the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation, including webinars, teaching resources, and more. Though some of the information is focused on undergraduate courses, most of these resources apply to undergraduate and graduate courses.
To help students begin to navigate remote learning in the fall, DTEI recommends posting your syllabus to your Canvas course space now and including a link to UCI’s remote learning website: https://sites.uci.edu/learnanywhere/. For Canvas course pages moving forward, the pages will default to Institution View. This allows students to access information about a course ahead of time, including the syllabus, to better plan their quarter and academic pathway. Faculty can easily change this view as needed within the Canvas settings. Details are available at Grand Central.
Virtual Office Hours
Hosted by DTEI
The DTEI support staff provides virtual office hours to support faculty with their remote teaching needs. Faculty can schedule a 30-min consultation appointment for one-on-one support. Please note that the appointment request needs to be submitted 24 hours in advance, and a confirmation email will be sent to you with the meeting link.
Tools for Successful Remote Teaching
Teaching Resources for BioSci Faculty
BioSci has created a Google Doc for faculty which includes resources to assist with your remote learning experience. There currently is a PowerPoint with information on best practices for remote learning, and the Google Doc will be updated continually with resources as they become available.
UCI Canvas
UCI Canvas is an online platform for UCI courses. It’s your and your students one-stop shop for readings, lectures, discussions, assignments, exams, and grades.
- Visit the UCI Canvas main page
- Canvas Instructor Guide
- Online writing instruction resources for Canvas, provided by UCI Campus Writing and Communication Coordinator
- Video Tutorial on setting up Canvas, provided by Michael Dennin, PhD
- Canvas Cheat Sheet: Quick steps on organizing your Canvas course, courtesy of Kassia Wosick, Sociology
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
You can use the UCI VPN if you need to access scientific papers online or use other resources available through the UCI network. If you use the Web VPN option, be sure to select “WebVPN” as the Group before you log in. See instructions here.
You can also download the Software VPN app to enable VPN for all connections – not just those via web browser.
But my home internet is unstable!
Click here for suggestions from OIT.
Click here for resources from UCI TeachPrep. Feel free to share this link with your students, too!
Zoom
The university has enabled Zoom teleconferencing access for all faculty. You can use this link to log into your account and determine whether you currently have a “Basic” or “Licensed” account. Meetings for those with “Basic” accounts are limited to 40 minutes, so if you’d like to have longer meetings please contact a department administrator to sign up for a “Licensed” account, which is free for UCI faculty.
Once you’ve logged into your Zoom account, you can change your profile and settings. For example, you may want to allow anyone on the call to share screens if you’d like to look at files with your students or colleagues while on Zoom. Only use this feature with trusted entities, otherwise click here to utilize security measures suggested by OIT.
How can I prevent Zoombombing? And when did that become a word?
See the guidance from OIT:
- https://techprep.oit.uci.edu/zoom/zoombombing/
- https://techprep.oit.uci.edu/2020/04/01/keep-zoom-meetings-secure/
- https://uci.edu/coronavirus/messages/200325-zoom-privacy.php
If you experience Zoombombing, please report it to techprep@uci.edu.
Helpful links and resources for Zoom
- Security measures suggested by OIT
- Zoom set-up guide, provided by OIT
- Zoom training, application, and features, provided by UCI School of Medicine
- If you have TAs/LAs, add them as co-hosts to your Zoom account
- Video conference etiquette guide to share with students and others, courtesy of the Yassa Lab
Yuja
Want to capture just your slide presentation? To record your slide presentation alone, or include a picture-in-picture recording of yourself presenting the lecture, use the YuJa desktop-based lecture capture software.
YuJa can record lectures straight from your desktop and store the video file on their servers. You can also store files created with other video capture software, including Zoom. YuJa provides a digital media library in which you can store everything online. And you can also link the stored videos to Canvas.
Faculty Coaches
The following faculty members are happy to serve as resources to assist faculty and lecturers with remote instruction technologies. Please check the above resources first, but then email them directly to request assistance.
Melanie Cocco, MB&B (mcocco@uci.edu)
Celia Faiola, EEB (cfaiola@uci.edu)
Catherine Loudon, EEB (cloudon@uci.edu)
Grant MacGregor, DevCell (gmacg@uci.edu)
Adrienne Williams, DevCell (adriw@uci.edu)
FYIs and Need to Knows
Learning Assistants (LAs):
The Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation and the Certified Learning Assistants Program (CLAP) are encouraging faculty to consider using Learning Assistants (LAs) remotely as another means of student support remote instruction. LAs can assist in facilitating discussion sections, Canvas discussion boards, or small group meetings. LAs can also provide live support by facilitating group discussions during synchronous remote lectures, managing students in Zoom breakout rooms, or holding virtual office hours/drop-in tutoring.
CLAP has created resources to help faculty get started with this process: https://dtei.uci.edu/learning-assistants-3/
Dry Ice:
Mark your calendars! Dry ice scheduled to be delivered to 1439F MH every Monday.
Questions
If you have additional questions on setting up key technology, please contact the EEE Support Team at eee-support@uci.edu, and they will direct you to the appropriate point of contact.
Additional Resources and Information
Tips and Advice
- Asynchronous versus synchronous: Michael Dennin, Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning and Dean of Division of Undergraduate Education, offered the following advice: “For consistency, when it comes to asynchronous versus synchronous, it is truly a balancing act in terms of access versus engagement. We will be providing multiple levels of advice and suggestions in this space as we move forward. The short answer is that it is best to leverage both modes where possible but not have grades rely on synchronous, where possible, because of all the issues with access and stable tech.”
- Stay up to date on the latest information: Online Education’s Faculty Focus Blog provides great and current information on online teaching. In addition, Elizabeth Pollard from San Diego State University created the following chart to offer ideas for how you might deploy educational technologies to transfer face-to-face teaching strategies into an online modality: Pedagogy in the Time of COVID-19.
- The UCI School of Social Sciences created a fantastic list of tips and tricks from social sciences faculty and beyond:
- Tips on Remote Instruction: Slide deck courtesy of Bill Branch, Economics
- Online Course Checklist courtesy of Kassia Wosick, Sociology
- Video: What Makes a Good Teacher Great? | Azul Terronez | TEDxSantoDomingo, shared by Jeanett Castellanos, Social Sciences
- 10 Tips for First Time Online Faculty – Medium, by Andrew Vanden Heuvel, 2010 Michigan Online Teacher of the Year
- Increasing Student Engagement in Online Courses, Journal of Educators Online, shared by Jeanett Castellanos
- Moving Online Now, The Chronicle of Higher Education
UCI Disability Service Center
The DSC Office is now closed until further notice.
However, DSC staff, services, and support will continue to be available remotely, 8:00am to 5:00pm, Monday-Friday.
Please click the link below to learn more about updates from the DSC related to COVID-19.
https://dsc.uci.edu/covid19/
Local Source for COVID-19 Info
You can visit the new website created by UCI Health for the latest information from expert voices on your health and wellness, testing, clinical trials, policy, technology, education, social issues, as well as insights and analysis on the real-life implications of these developments.
https://oc-covid19.org/
Additional Resources and Links
- Frequently asked questions for teaching continuity, provided by DTEI
- The Science journals are striving to provide the best and most timely research, analysis, and news coverage of COVID-19 and the coronavirus that causes it. All content is free to access: https://www.sciencemag.org/coronavirus-research-commentary-and-news
- Library Virtual Resources
- The newly redesigned UCI Libraries website makes connecting from off-campus easy. The redesigned website includes:
- Quick links to how to return or renew items, connecting to the Libraries remotely, and streaming media.
- Tips for your research.
- The newly redesigned UCI Libraries website makes connecting from off-campus easy. The redesigned website includes:
Who are the Equity Advisors?
Many of the faculty resources added to the BioSci remote website were brought to you by the SOM Equity Advisors (with a few edits for BioSci).
The Equity Advisors work with the Deans and the UCI Office of Inclusive Excellence to support UCI’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
An Equity Advisor is a senior faculty member, appointed as Faculty Assistant to the Dean in their respective schools. Equity Advisors participate in faculty recruiting by approving search strategies and raising awareness of best practices. Additionally, they organize faculty development programs, with both formal and informal mentoring, and address individual issues raised by women and underrepresented minority faculty.
Please send any updates or additions for the faculty resources on the remote site to elizabeth.m@uci.edu.
BioSci Equity Advisor:
Aimee Edinger