Teach Online:
Adapting Seminar Courses

List required readings and materials. List required course materials/resources to your course module contents.

Incorporate electronic options when available.

Think beyond readings. There might be podcasts, documentaries, YouTube videos or TED Talks that support your learning goals. If prominent scholars or professional societies in your field are on social media, you might ask students to “follow” them for additional insights on course concepts/topics.

Use library resources. Avoid upload PDFs of assigned journal articles to your modules, to avoid copyright infringement. Instead, provide complete citation information for students so they can retrieve the articles, and links to publicly available materials and resources. Leverage your campus library E-reserve system, if available.

 Consider incorporating open educational resources. Adapting and using open educational resources (OER) can save students money and provide you with flexibility on how you present information. To learn more:

• SUNY OER Services.

If your face-to-face seminars typically include lectures, you have  options for adapting these to an online course.

Synchronous (real-time) lectures

You can use video conferencing tools to deliver live lectures to your students. However, please be aware that lengthy synchronous lectures can be fatiguing for you and students alike. Check with your campus to see what technologies are recommended/supported for synchronous online instruction.

Keep synchronous lectures short and build in plenty of breaks for questions, reflection and discussion. Try not to lecture for longer than 10 minutes without a pause of some kind.

Record synchronous online sessions. Recording your synchronous sessions allows all students to review the recording for reference throughout the semester. Consider asking students who were unable to attend the session to watch the recording and respond to it (e.g., submit a written reflection on topics discussed) to make up participation points.

 Asynchronous (recorded) lectures

Recording your lectures in advance gives students more flexibility on when to view them. Check with your campus to see what recording tools are recommended/supported that will allow you to record your lecture material, and provide options for allowing students to engage and interact or respond to your recorded lecture presentations.

Tools like VoiceThread or Panopto allow for comments, quizzes and engagement, and can be embedded into your course assignments and discussion prompts.

Guest speakers

Guest lectures can be easier to arrange in an online course, as your guest does not have to travel—or necessarily even be online with your class. Online web conferencing tools will allow you to invite guests from outside your campus community and most have experience with various platforms. Some ways you might make the most of this opportunity:

• Invite your guest to speak during a live session, allowing students to ask questions at the time.
• Your guest could record a lecture in advance and share it with you. In this case, consider asking students to submit questions in advance.
• You could record a synchronous meeting with your guest, conduct the lecture as an interview, with you posing questions for your guest.

As with lectures, online class discussions can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Use the synchronous web conferencing tools and features to keep synchronous sessions interactive:

• Breakout rooms allow students to discuss topics in smaller groups. You can create the rooms after the session has started or pre-assign them.
• Polls provide students a chance to respond quickly and anonymously to questions posed during the session.
• Enable screen-sharing during the session so students can share their own work.
• Allow students to annotate the whiteboard or a slide you’ve shared. For example, share a slide of a chart or graphic organizer, and ask students to use the Zoom annotation tools to complete it.

Online asynchronous discussions can add new dimensions to the conversation:

• Encourage students question their assumptions and support their assertions.
• Encourage students to use discussions to apply course concepts and relate them to topics in which they have interest or experience.
• Model online discussion best practices to guide student behavior as they learn how to get the most from their online discussion interactions.
  • Give each post a good title.
  • Give your post context by targeting it to a course idea, questions, comment, or individual.
  • Cite your sources.
  • End your post with a question.
• Use a discussion rubric to help students understand the objective criteria you have for excellent online discussions.
• Embellish the text of your discussion prompt with supporting links and embedded videos.
• Embed a media prompt (a diagram, video, etc.) for students to respond to.
• Model the use of rich media (audio, video, links, etc) in your responses.
• Encourage students to use varied media in their responses gives students options in how they make their thinking and learning visible to you in ways that may be more comfortable/easier for them, e.g., recorded audio/video responses.

Design online discussions for deeper learning with higher order reflection and critical thinking.

Design discussion prompts that don’t have right answers. It is not really a discussion if there is only one “correct” response.

Design discussion prompts that guide students to think more deeply about assigned readings. Ask students to reflect, apply, report, support, explain, defend, refute, question, self-assess, summarize, synthesize, and analyze what they read. Deep reading info graphic.

Present a case study and ask students how they might respond. Variations might include, student-generated case projects, small group work around cases, or cases that unfold over the course of the semester.

Have students “test” each other over the material. One student starts the discussion by posing a question. The next student answers the first question and then poses a new question. The first student follows up by giving feedback on the second student’s response, providing references as appropriate. See Project Zero’s Thinking Routines (from Harvard University) for many more creative ideas.

Online writing assignments vary from short essays to multi-page research papers.

Use rubrics with written assignments to help clarify expectations for the assignment. For instructors, rubrics streamline the grading process and help ensure objective assessment.

Leverage grading tools and features of the learning management system to view, read, annotate, grade, and provide feedback. Audio, video, and text annotation feedback functions can make your feedback more engaging and effective, and may provide you with time-saving efficiencies.

Effective presentation is a critical academic and professional skill requiring planning, design and speaking.

Live online presentations in a synchronous online session offer an authentic experience and allow classmates to respond in the moment.

Asynchronous presentations can be supported in a number of ways. Students can record a screen cast of their presentations using a variety of tools that can then be easily shared as an assignment, or with the class as an embedded element in a discussion response, for example.

Electronic portfolios provide the opportunity for students to curate a collection of course work, and to reflect, demonstrate, showcase and share their growth and learning during the course.

There are a number of Alternative Assessments resources for more ideas on how to assess your online students.

Some faculty may be concerned academic integrity in online teaching and learning environments. Learn more about Supporting Online Learner Success and Promoting Academic Honesty in your online instruction

As with lectures, online class discussions can be synchronous or asynchronous.

Use the synchronous web conferencing tools and features to keep synchronous sessions interactive:

• Breakout rooms allow students to discuss topics in smaller groups. You can create the rooms after the session has started or pre-assign them.
• Polls provide students a chance to respond quickly and anonymously to questions posed during the session.
• Enable screen-sharing during the session so students can share their own work.
• Allow students to annotate the whiteboard or a slide you’ve shared. For example, share a slide of a chart or graphic organizer, and ask students to use the Zoom annotation tools to complete it.

Online asynchronous discussions can add new dimensions to the conversation:

• Encourage students question their assumptions and support their assertions.
• Encourage students to use discussions to apply course concepts and relate them to topics in which they have interest or experience.
• Model online discussion best practices to guide student behavior as they learn how to get the most from their online discussion interactions.
  • Give each post a good title.
  • Give your post context by targeting it to a course idea, questions, comment, or individual.
  • Cite your sources.
  • End your post with a question.
• Use a discussion rubric to help students understand the objective criteria you have for excellent online discussions.
• Embellish the text of your discussion prompt with supporting links and embedded videos.
• Embed a media prompt (a diagram, video, etc.) for students to respond to.
• Model the use of rich media (audio, video, links, etc) in your responses.
• Encourage students to use varied media in their responses gives students options in how they make their thinking and learning visible to you in ways that may be more comfortable/easier for them, e.g., recorded audio/video responses.

Design online discussions for deeper learning with higher order reflection and critical thinking.

Design discussion prompts that don’t have right answers. It is not really a discussion if there is only one “correct” response.

Design discussion prompts that guide students to think more deeply about assigned readings. Ask students to reflect, apply, report, support, explain, defend, refute, question, self-assess, summarize, synthesize, and analyze what they read. Deep reading info graphic.

Present a case study and ask students how they might respond. Variations might include, student-generated case projects, small group work around cases, or cases that unfold over the course of the semester.

Have students “test” each other over the material. One student starts the discussion by posing a question. The next student answers the first question and then poses a new question. The first student follows up by giving feedback on the second student’s response, providing references as appropriate. See Project Zero’s Thinking Routines (from Harvard University) for many more creative ideas.

Online writing assignments vary from short essays to multi-page research papers.

Use rubrics with written assignments to help clarify expectations for the assignment. For instructors, rubrics streamline the grading process and help ensure objective assessment.

Leverage grading tools and features of the learning management system to view, read, annotate, grade, and provide feedback. Audio, video, and text annotation feedback functions can make your feedback more engaging and effective, and may provide you with time-saving efficiencies.

Effective presentation is a critical academic and professional skill requiring planning, design and speaking.

Live online presentations in a synchronous online session offer an authentic experience and allow classmates to respond in the moment.

Asynchronous presentations can be supported in a number of ways. Students can record a screen cast of their presentations using a variety of tools that can then be easily shared as an assignment, or with the class as an embedded element in a discussion response, for example.

Electronic portfolios provide the opportunity for students to curate a collection of course work, and to reflect, demonstrate, showcase and share their growth and learning during the course.

There are a number of Alternative Assessments resources for more ideas on how to assess your online students.

Some faculty may be concerned academic integrity in online teaching and learning environments. Learn more about Supporting Online Learner Success and Promoting Academic Honesty in your online instruction