Online Education Best Practices
In response to the changing COVID-19 situation, the university is preparing technology resources so faculty members and instructors have the ability to transition their courses online. The Cockrell School has compiled the following resources and tools to help course instructors prepare for this transition.
7 Steps for Building a High-Quality Class Online
STEP 1
Determine What Kind of Course You Are Teaching
The modality of your course will strongly influence the technology, testing, and transformation strategies you employ. Resources have been curated to assist you in transitioning your course to high-quality online teaching and learning.
STEP 2
Plan Your Course and the Transition to Online Teaching and Learning
Once you have determined what primary modality you are teaching, determine your goals for student learning and how you will present content, engage students in your class, and assess student learning.
STEP 3
Design and Build Your Course in Canvas
Once you have your teaching plan, download a Canvas Course template. The UT Canvas support team has developed several templates for developing your courses. They have been designed to create consistency for the student across courses and support best practices for online and hybrid course design.
STEP 4
Familiarize Yourself With the Tools
Make sure you are comfortable using tools like Zoom, Panopto and other applications and technologies for delivering your online courses.
STEP 5
Consider Testing and Assessment
Students enrolled in the semester will no longer have the ability to modify their course grades to credit/no credit. Furthermore, instructors won’t have the ability to develop personal rapport with students before starting online instruction. Because of this abnormal environment, instructors need to be acutely aware that online instruction presents a new set of technical and experiential challenges that need mastery and effective use of technology and software solutions for online testing.
STEP 6
Participate in Classroom/Technology Training and Verification
Even with well designed Canvas courses and assessments, technology failures can disrupt sound pedagogy. If teaching in hybrid technology-enabled classroom instructors must attend training. It is also recommended they schedule a time to test their own devices and their teaching workflow in the classroom they are assigned.
STEP 7
Find Instructional and Technology Support
It is recommended that, if you have a TA, assign your TA to Canvas and coordinate roles and responsibilities, in addition to identifying a backup course instructor. Be sure you are also aware of the IT contacts and methods to submit issues and requests for support.
Committee on Online Education Best Practices
Tan Bui
Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Pengyu Ren
Biomedical Engineering
Fernanda Leite
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Dave Allen
Chemical Engineering
Matt Mangum
Cockrell School of Engineering
Eric Roe
Texas Engineering Executive Education
Ramesh Yerabelli
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Derek Haas
Mechanical Engineering
Carlos Torres-Verdin (Chair)
Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
