Communicate asynchronously with the whole class regularly
(e.g. weekly email via GauchoSpace announcements, weekly short video, chat room in Nectir)

Use a digital survey to ask students about their academic experiences, learning preferences, and professional goals.

• Which classes have you taken (at any time) that might relate to this course?

• How do you plan to study for this course outside of class hours? (revising notes, studying with peers, annotating readings, keeping up with homework, attending office hours, tutors at campus services like CLAS or the writing center)

• Which of the class topics do you anticipate to be the most interesting for your personal or professional development? (list topics)

• What else would you like to share that could help me support your learning in this course?

Reach out to students periodically about their progress and how to get more support if needed. 
(e.g. use light-touch feedback and GauchoSpace analytics to almost automate the process).

Structure your synchronous class for engagement. 

Begin class with welcoming music, saying hello to students, and an activity that solicits many students’ input, ideas, knowledge, and/or experiences. It could be an icebreaker or something that has to do with the content.

Leverage technologies like Zoom chat, reactions, and polls; iClicker questions; Google Docs and Google Slides Q&A.

Run topic-based office hours, but call them “workshop” or “review session” 
(e.g. assignment overview, homework problems, research question, writing workshop).

Use Zoom break out rooms for small group or paired activities that can help students work together on higher-level thinking skills, such as problem solving, analysis, synthesis, creation, planning, experimentation, debate, judgement, and argumentation. Consider putting the same students together in breakout rooms for every live class, so they build a peer group. Leverage technologies that provide you with a window into students’ thinking processes while they work together. (e.g. Google Docs).

Introduce students to each other using icebreakers and low-risk questions during the minutes leading up class and/or as a way for students to start paired/group work.

• Ideas for low-risk topics: Clubs to join, restaurants, shows, music, hikes, sport, places to go, favorite thing about being in college, best class, hobby, skill, job, hometown/country, vacation, etc.

Create frequent opportunities for peer conversations and collaborative work both in and out of synchronous meetings so students build relationships with each other. (e.g. break out rooms, discussion forums, peer review, Nectir chats, Flip Grid)

Encourage students to create study groups and do homework together. Use Nectir or a study-groups forum so students can talk to each other outside of class, or offer to announce a different student-created study or online chat group.

Prepare in advance, whether there is a short disruption to on-campus learning due to a power outage, poor air quality, etc., or a longer disruption like a public health emergency. Use this checklist to help ensure that your course is set up to support your students’ learning.

• Sign up for the UCSB Alert system to receive messages with important updates.
• Add a paragraph to your syllabus that tells students how they should expect to communicate with you, TAs, and other students about the course should there be a disruption.
• Establish preferred ways to communicate with the members of your teaching team.
• Create a GauchoSpace site for your class with all of the pertinent information that will allow students to navigate the course in the event of a shift between course formats (remote, in-person, hybrid).
• Download, install, and sign into Zoom and Panopto on your home computer.
• Create a permanent Zoom meeting link for your course, and post it on your GauchoSpace site (it can be hidden until needed and/or used for office hours).
• Add the GauchoCast block to your GauchoSpace site to provide students access to recorded videos.
• Use the KeepTeaching Tech Tutorials page to familiarize yourself with GauchoSpace, GauchoCast, Panopto, Zoom, and other technologies that can support flexible learning.
• Familiarize yourself with your General Assignment classroom attributes and campus emergency procedures.
• Identify an off-campus location to stream or record that has good internet and is free of visual and audio distractions.

• Make sure students can find everything they need on your course GauchoSpace page (announcements, learning outcomes, assignment instructions, due dates, rubrics, Zoom links, etc.) - GauchoSpace help can assist you!
• Record a screencast of your lecture and your voice using Panopto, available for free to all humans at UCSB and on all general assignment classroom computers.
• Create (and communicate) a plan for letting students know how to access course materials and meetings remotely in case of campus emergencies.
• Create a course roadmap and weekly pattern to show connections between activities, assessments and course goals. 
• Use rubrics for grading complex assignments and share them with students from the outset.
• Incorporate exit tickets or a mid-quarter survey to learn about what’s resonating with students and adjust your teaching accordingly.

When you and/or TAs communicate with students...

• Set and maintain a positive tone by using GauchoSpace communication tools, such as a welcome message, Peachmail, and introductory surveys.
• Offer Zoom “Student hours” (formerly known as “office hours”).
• Set up a backchannel in Nectir for students to ask questions during (and between) class. 
• Use “light touch” feedback throughout the quarter. 

...and build community among students. Consider some of the following:

• Online discussion forums and backchannels
• Group annotated readings and notes 
• Peer commenting and review
• Group work and group projects
• Buddy system to facilitate studying and friendships

The more TAs are oriented to the objectives and technologies associated with your course, the more they can be effective liaisons between your ideas and students’ learning.

• TAs need preparation for the technical aspects of teaching; in particular, they would like training before the start of the quarter on instructional technologies  (e.g. to grade papers electronically using GradeScope, to help with GauchoSpace, to track attendance, to run section or lab on Zoom).
• Communicate frequently with TAs: make an agenda for your weekly meeting with TAs and invite them to add their topics, email the group to check in weekly.
• Discourage your TAs from conducting “dual-mode instruction” with some students in-person and some online. This modality is very difficult, logistically, and can result in a worse experience for both in-person and online students. 
• Think about how the TA role might shift in the event of a campus disruption, and how you can help them prepare for their (new) responsibilities.

People learn; we can’t do the learning for them. For this reason, students appreciate opportunities to actively engage in learning.

• Plan your lessons with active learning strategies like think-pair-share, Google Docs, or iclicker questions to encourage engagement during class. 
• Use asynchronous activities between class meetings (like discussion forums, Nectir chats, in-video quizzes and collaborative reading/note-taking) to foster continuous engagement.

• Design for flexible engagement: use asynchronous activities for students to interact with each other and the course material outside of the classroom.
• Create policies for flexible deadlines (where possible) in anticipation that some students will have short and longer-term excused medical absences.
• Create multiple opportunities for students to demonstrate and get feedback on their learning in class and in summative assessments (think: active learning and authentic, meaningful assessments).