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Teaching Resources

This collection of technological tips, instructional strategies, and sample assignments and activities was designed by Open Society University Network (OSUN) faculty. Whether working online, in person, or in a blended context, central to all of these practices is establishing a clear and consistent communication plan with your students.
OSUN Connected and Blended Learning Toolkit

OSUN Connected and Blended Learning Toolkit

Placing Liberal Arts Pedagogies Front and Center

The OSUN Connected and Blended Learning Toolkit, developed by the Center for Learning in Practice (CLiP) at the Carey Institute for Global Good in collaboration with the Open Society University Network and Bard College, is a living document that is open and accessible to faculty across the network, offering support for connected and blended course development.

English Language Version   Russian Language Version  Arabic Language Version

Questions? Check out these downloads.

The following instructional resources and technological tips are organized in the form of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). For each question you will find a range of resources that answer the question and offer interdisciplinary examples of assignments and activities one might adapt for their own classes. These resources aim to translate liberal arts and student-centered teaching practices into blended or online formats. 

  1. How do I transfer seminar-style teaching practices into an online environment?
  2. How do I create and maintain a sense of community in my online course?
  3. How do I keep students engaged when they are not gathering each week?
  4. How do I use writing for remote learning?
  5. How do I deliver an engaging online session?
  6. How do I share course content online?
  7. How do I structure low-tech assignments for remote teaching?
  8. How can I teach effectively using different online platforms?
  9. How do I teach remotely in the arts?
  10. How to I teach remotely in STEM?
  11. How do I teach remotely in the humanities?
  12. How do I teach foreign languages remotely?

1. How do I transfer seminar-style teaching practices into an online environment?

Seminars are often associated with intimate, in-person classes. What follows is a list of a range of different possible activities that one might use in an in-person seminar, with approaches intended to offer options for replicating these activities online.

Class Discussion

  • Activity: Silent Discussion Gone Online
  • Activity: Whole-Class Synchronous Discussion
  • Activity: Small Group Work via Social Media
  • Assignment: Question and Claim Weekly Response
  • Assignment: Student-Generated Question Assignment

Close Reading

  • Activity: Collaborative Close Reading
  • Activity: Hashtag Close Reading
  • Activity: Listen and Visualize
  • Activity: Virtual Annotation

Engage the Essay-Writing Process

  • Activity: Online Peer Review
  • Assignment: Virtual Group Essay

Small Group Work

  • Assignment: Dialogical/Notebook
  • Sample Class Plan: Know, Want to Know, Learned
  • Sample Class Plan: Online Annotated Bibliographies

Student Presentations

  • Sample Class Plan: Dialogue Between Authors

2. How do I build and maintain a sense of community in my online course?

It is extremely important that students have the sense of being part of a class community, even if that community exists solely online. The activities that follow represent different approaches to creating a learning community online that is sustained throughout the entirety of the course and hopefully beyond. These approaches aim to help to support initial cohort building, as well as offer practices to use in blended contexts. 

  • ACTIVITY: Community, Agency, and Process
  • ASSIGNMENT: Creating an Online Magazine
  • SAMPLE CLASS PLAN: Building an Online Community of Process

3. How do I keep students engaged when they are not gathering each week?

Engaging in online learning is a very different experience from in person, seminar-style classes. Many students might initially struggle to adjust. What follows are some suggestions for how to help students as they move online, and identify the kind of engagement (synchronous or asynchronous) that works best with the student’s situation.

  • Navigating a Blend of Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning
  • Supporting Students as They Transition to Online Learning
  • Strategies for the Transition to Online Learning

4. How do I use writing for remote learning? 

Writing-based teaching practices work particularly well in online and remote learning contexts—they offer ways for all students to engage that can be done synchronously (in real-time) or asynchronously (at the student’s own pace). Writing also invites quieter students to engage in ways other than speaking, and invites collaboration between small and large groups.

  • IWT’s Writing Rich Ideas for Teaching at a Distance
  • BPI's Suggestions for Writing-Based Course Revision

5. How do I deliver an engaging online session?

Online courses can use many of the same strategies that in person classes use to keep students engaged. Guest speakers can be invited to join via video conferencing synchronously. Students can also replicate the same formal structures (i.e. hand raising) of the in-person classroom environment. Student interaction with speakers can also be encouraged via submitting questions and comments ahead of time or using chat features. 

  • Activity: Inviting Guest Speakers
  • Activity: Involving Students (Cold Call, Hand Raising)
  • Sample Class Plan: Using Twitter in the Classroom

6. How do I share course content online?

Designing an online course is normally a detailed process that takes a lot of instructional design and planning. When shifting to online learning mid semester, many faculty opt to record or pre-record lectures (video or audio), and use online apps to replicate the classroom blackboard or whiteboard.

  • Creating a Digital Whiteboard
  • Video Filming and Audio Guidelines

7. How do I structure low-tech assignments for remote teaching?

Teaching online does not necessarily mean that one needs to use a range of technically complex teaching tools. There are many low-tech, creative options that invite students to engage meaningfully in course content whatever the topic or field.

  • EH's "Low-Tech Assignments" (for Teaching at a Distance during COVID-19)
  • EH's “Low-Tech Assignments” Arabic Translation
  • EH's “Low-Tech Assignments” French Translation
  • EH's “Low-Tech Assignments” German Translation
  • EH's “Low-Tech Assignments” Russian Translation
  • EH's “Low-Tech Assignments” Spanish Translation
  • Video: EH's Creative Assignments for Teaching Online
  • Video: Best Practices for Online Instruction

8. How can I teach effectively using different online platforms?

Navigating and exploring the many online platforms available and selecting which one works best for your class can be more overwhelming than the platform itself. What follows are video tutorials that aim to provide quick “how to" guides for specific tools and functions.

  • Video: Introduction to Zoom
  • Video: Starting a Meeting with Google Meet
  • Video: Options Menus in Google Meet
  • Video: Recording Your Class and Posting the Video to Google Classroom
  • Video: Scheduling a Meeting with "Conferencing" in Google Calendar

9. How do I teach remotely in the arts?

Remote and online learning can seem daunting in the context of the practicing and performing arts which rely heavily on embodied practice. There are strategies that take advantage of digital tools in order to expand how studio- related work can be translated online in a way that is productive for students. This includes collaborative visual projects, discussions of filmed works, and assignments intended to focus on specific techniques.

  • Bard VRC's Teaching with Images in a Remote Context
  • Survival Guide from VCUarts
  • DSA's Resources for Moving Dance-Based Pedagogy Online
  • Teaching Theatre Online: A Shift in Pedagogy Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak
  • Sample Class Plan: Online Artist Statements
  • Video: Distance Learning in the Arts

10. How do I teach remotely in STEM?

Teaching remotely in STEM offers the added benefit of virtual labs and simulations, enabling students to have the opportunity to problem-solve and experiment as they would in person.

  • Sample Class Plan: Biology
  • Sample Class Plan: Health Psychology
  • Sample Class Plan: Introduction to Math and Informatics
  • Video: Using EdPuzzle in the Remote STEM Classroom

11. How do I teach remotely in the humanities?

Many humanities courses are text-based, which makes remote and blended learning an exciting opportunity to invite students to think deeply about these texts in different ways, taking advantage of multimedia, collaborative writing and discussion.

  • MLA’s Resources for Bringing Your Course Online
  • Assignment: Lexicon Podcast Proposal
  • Sample Class Plan: Image and Hashtag Assignment
  • Sample Class Plan: Online Introductory Concept/Writing and Image Activity
  • Sample Class Plan: Online Annotated Poetry Activity

12.  How do I teach Foreign Languages remotely?

The practice of language learning involves writing, reading, and speaking activities that work particularly well online. These strategies include taking advantage of discussion forums to prepare students for synchronous video discussions, creating storybooks, and listening/dictation activities. There are also a range of apps and tools that help to facilitate and replicate the routines of in-person instruction: vocabulary practice using quizlet, utilizing virtual whiteboards, scaffolded group work and presentations. 

  • FLCL's Guide for Online Language Teaching
  • Activity: Breakout Room Grammar Practice
  • Activity: Using HelloTalk for Conversation Practice
  • Assignment: Qualtrics Comprehension Quiz

Additional Resources

Bard's Center for Experimental Humanities:
EH's “Low-Tech Assignments” (for Teaching at a Distance during COVID-19)

Bard’s Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures Program (FLCL):
Guide for Online Language Teaching Solutions

Moving Online: What You Can Implement Now

Eight Tips for First-Time Online Learners

Arts:
Survival Guide from VCUarts
Dance:
Resources for Moving Dance-Based Pedagogy Online
Theater:
Teaching Theatre Online: A Shift in Pedagogy Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak

Bard College Center for Faculty and Curricular Development

Additional course-specific activities and assignments coming soon!

Visit the CFCD Website
Course Continuity Resources*
Strategies for the Transition to Online Learning
*Includes materials specific to Bard College in Annandale.

Open Society University Network
For more information contact: 
[email protected]