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Technology and Teaching Modalities

We know that teaching will look and feel different this year, and will present a set of challenges and special opportunities to experiment in new ways. The physical classroom will be different. New teaching modalities have emerged. In an effort to help you prepare, we have curated existing OIT resources, organized to support each teaching modality offered this semester. We hope you will find this resource informative and helpful.

Classroom Technology

If you are teaching on campus, you will want to check out both the footprint of your classroom with social distancing guidelines applied, and the available technology in your classroom. You can find both and receive online training on classroom technology at classrooms.utk.edu.

If you are new to the technology in your classroom or are teaching in a manner where you will have face-to-face AND online students simultaneously, you will want to schedule some hands-on practice in a classroom as these teaching modalities require special attention.

Schedule a Zoom consult in a UTK classroom that best represents the technology available in your classroom.

Instructions on what to do and bring for your classroom technology training session

Information for All Teaching Modalities

UTK is asking all instructors who are teaching on-campus classes to create a seating chart for all face-to-face components of the class. The seating chart will be used to expedite contact tracing if needed. For more information about class seating charts, see the guidance provided by the Provost office.

You can also quickly prepare a class seating chart and track attendance using the Attendance Tool in Canvas. More information may be found at this link https://provost.utk.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/06/Seating-charts-for-on-campus-classes.pdf

The Clicker Self-Service Training course will equip you with the tools and knowledge to pose response driven questions in real-time during your course instruction. Whether you teach with PowerPoint or other presentation styles, you can use the TurningPoint software to ask and receive responses. This response system also allows you to sync the responses to Canvas for class participation scores or quizzes. By completing this course you will have ability to:

  • Setup your Canvas course to use clickers
  • Create questions in PowerPoint, Anywhere Polling (questions over other software), Self-paced quizzes (participants answer at their own pace), or Scheduled quizzes.
  • Sync grades to Canvas

Learn more about Clickers and how to incorporate them in your teaching

Delivering Asynchronous Training

This workshop is a “one stop shop” for asynchronous training related to many different aspects of designing and delivering an effective online assessment strategy.  The collection includes training on the pedagogical design thinking that undergirds effective and valid assessment, strategies for using Canvas and Canvas-integrated tools to build a better test, considerations for providing feedback that learners use, and information about non-Canvas quiz assessment methods to consider. 

Learn How to Deliver Great Asynchronous Content

Online Proctoring

Campus-supported online proctoring tools include Respondus Lock Down Browser (prevents students from browsing the internet while taking a test) and Respondus Monitor (a system for online proctoring).  Respondus 4.0 supports test creation for easy upload into the Canvas Quiz Tool.  If you are interested in employing any of these respondus products, you can watch these short videos:

https://utk.instructure.com/courses/55015/pages/respondus-lockdown-browser-respondus-monitor-and-respondus-4-dot-0

Here are some tips for providing for accessibility of your course content:

Remember that regardless of your preferred teaching modality, the best way to be prepared for any teaching/learning scenario is to create a robust Canvas site for your course. Doing so will provide you and your students the flexibility to fully participate regardless of the delivery mode (Face-to-face, Hybrid, Online).

A Robust Canvas site is one that:

  • Includes an inviting course Homepage.
  • Employs a course template designed by OIT to help structure your course site.
  • Uploads course content to include recorded lectures, PowerPoints, links to external web resources and other materials.
  • Creates assignments that are automatically linked to the gradebook and the course calendar and establish a standard method for students to submit assignments.
  • Creates online assessments using the Canvas quiz tool, in which quiz questions and distractors can be randomized to create unique student attempts.
  • Delivers live lectures and conducts office hours online in Zoom.

Available Training

Explore information about Zoom, UTK’s supported asynchronous teaching and meeting tool.

There are a variety of collaboration tools that you and your students can use before, during, or after a class session that will facilitate communication and collaboration between students in the classroom and online. Explore what options are available to you.

Want to know what tools are available for you to create instructional materials? Check out our guide on instructional tools, what they can used for, and where you can get training.

Information on Specific Teaching Modalities

Training & Support

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