Jay, Chuck, and I put our 100+ years of teaching experience together to try to help as we all begin this transition to a coronavirus semester. If you are not using MyOMLab yet, we strongly encourage you to sign your students up (90 day free period if you are using our Heizer/Render/Munson texts). More ideas will follow this week.
- Teaching online is not the same as teaching face to face. Be proactive with communication, schedules, and assignments.
- Accept that your course will not be exactly as you planned….. and adjust.
- Details we assume in the classroom become important with remote students: Maintain context; identify the question, the problem, the post, include the date and time.
- Consider how your course material might best be captured: assigned readings, written out mini lectures, screen captures, short videos, etc.
- Videos: If you make and post a video, shoot for 6 minutes or less. Or instead consider using the videos that come with our text (46 company video case studies, 90+ Solved Problem videos, 12 recent grad videos about OM careers). It’s also possible to have students post their own videos, either recorded through Panopto or even their own phones. This allows for mini-presentations that other students could comment on.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel: Use existing resources that come with the text; Power points, videos, existing problems, etc.
- Participation: There are multiple ways of encouraging participation online: skype; face time; group work through discussion forums; Zoom video conference.
- Make a schedule … your schedule and the student’s schedule. Be specific about deadlines. be clear about content and time expectations for their posts to each other in discussion forums. Let students know how they can raise questions and when you will be responding. Any online synchronous activities should be scheduled at the same time that the live class had been meeting prior to moving to distance.
- Hybrid approach You might try recorded lectures for more quantitative content but still have the class meet through Zoom, say, once per week for more discussion-based topics. Zoom’s screen share feature works quite well during a live class. Students primarily focus on the instructor’s computer screen with a small video of the instructor in the corner. And it’s easy to switch from a Power Point slide to Excel to showing a video, etc.
- Communications: Remember, the students may be new to this too, so continuing communication is important. Check your email more often than usual. Students may be asking questions at any time of day.