How Do I?

This resource page is designed from the practical perspective for any instructor, who may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of teaching tools and apps available for online instruction. Please review the scenarios and the solutions below to evaluate if they apply to your teaching situation. If you wish to suggest or include new scenarios, please use the contact form to send us your suggestion. 

How do I connect with students? 

Research has shown that connecting with students through using the community of inquiry (CoI) model ‌increases student retention--it’s an important piece of what you do as an instructor. There are several ways to foster connections in the online classroom. Here are a few ideas:

• Create a short welcome video that allows students to see your face, hear your voice, and learn about the goals for the course.
• From the main course menu, create a “Meet your instructor” menu item with a brief bio and photo. 
• Use tools such as Zoom, Teams, or other video platforms to foster connections.

How do I improve my grading? 

Providing personalized feedback is an excellent way to improve grading and reinforce a connection with your students. Meaningful feedback also improves student performance. 

We also recommend the use of rubrics. Rubrics are essential components of your online course and will help you with feedback that students can use to improve their work and encourage critical thinking. To help you with the construction of your rubrics, please review the provided resources below:

• Introduction to Rubrics, Dr. Nedim Slijepcevic - View Recording (50 minutes)
• The Benefits of Rubrics in Online Classes, Wiley

How do I ensure my course documents are accessible?

There are several tools that make this process easier than ever before! Prior to uploading documents to your course, you want to be sure to make them as accessible as possible. 

• Microsoft Word documents: Word has a built-in accessibility checker that will guide you through making the needed changes. The simplest way to access the accessibility checker in Word is to search “accessibility” from the top menu under “tell me what you want to do”.
• Adobe PDFs: A good rule of thumb is that a PDF is only as accessible as the Word document that you started with, so the easiest way to create an accessible PDF is to start with an accessible Word document. However, that’s not always possible. When in doubt, open the document in Adobe Acrobat Pro, click on “More Tools” and “Accessibility” to guide you through the needed changes.
• Additional information can be found here.

How do I create videos that are accessible? 

Microsoft Stream provides free captioning of video content. We do recommend reading the transcript provided for accuracy to ensure the quality of the content. If there are transcript corrections needed, they are easily made by the end-user. Learn more about using Microsoft Stream at EKU.

How do I schedule proctoring services? 

EKU's primary service for remote proctoring through Blackboard is Examity. When a test is proctored through Examity, a human interacts remotely with the student for identification and environment scanning, and then records the student's webcam, microphone, and monitor for the full test session. The cost for this service, paid by the student, is $17.50 for the first hour, $5 for each additional hour. 
 
Please note: Given the technological challenges and dubious benefits of remote proctoring, we suggest that instructors use assessment methods that do not require this kind of monitoring. For additional information, please contact the IT Helpdesk at 859-622-3000.

How do I ensure academic integrity? 

SafeAssign™ is a plagiarism prevention service for essays and research-based assignments. The tool is designed to help educators prevent plagiarism by detecting unoriginal content in student papers. 

View this resource for more information on the matching process and/or instructions for set-up, and watch this resource for information about grading assignments with SafeAssign.

How do I engage my students?

• During week one of class, ask students to introduce themselves and share their major, hometown, hobbies, interests, and goals.
• Utilize announcements several times a week to keep students informed and remind them of upcoming due dates.
• Create meaningful discussion board questions that foster critical thought, and require an initial post and responses to classmates. 
• When appropriate, you may consider scaffolding research paper assignments. For example, students could submit sources during week 2, a rough draft for peer review during week 4, and the final paper during week 6/7. This provides opportunities for engagement, performance improvement, and feedback from the instructor as well as peers. 
• Communicate regularly through email. Keep in mind, due to FERPA, emails must be sent through EKU student email accounts. To learn more about FERPA, please visit https://registrar.eku.edu/ferpa.

How do I maintain a presence in a remote instruction course?

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) approach is a three-dimensional approach to instructor presence in online and hybrid classrooms. It refers to the integration of teaching presence, cognitive presence, and social presence affording learners the opportunity to create a deep and meaningful learning experience. 

How do I design an online module using Backward Design?

Online module design can be a time-intensive and daunting task. But it can be simplified with a basic understanding of the instructional design principles that will help you in this journey.  There are many frameworks that can be used when designing lesson plans, but one of the most popular ones is Understanding by Design® or also known as Backward Design by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. We compiled a list of resources that will help you when designing your online lesson plans: 

• Robert Mager's Tips on Instructional Objectives (PDF)
• Introduction to Writing Learning Objectives (interactive lesson), Dr. Nedim Slijepcevic
• Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Objectives, University of Arkansas Teaching Innovation and Pedagogical Support
• What is Understanding by Design (video), Jay McTighe
• Introduction to Understanding by Design® (Backward Design) (interactive lesson), Dr. Nedim Slijepcevic

How do I do a screen recording?

Screencast-o-matic and Screencastify (a Chrome add-on) are free options for screen recording; both easy to use and have excellent tutorials. Faculty can also schedule the Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning's One-Button Studio.