Hello – amazing teachers who are having to change your Face-to-Face (F2F) classes into virtual classes overnight! (See this previous post for more – Help! I have to change my face-to-face classes to online in just a few days).

• ideas,
• to change around to fit what you are doing,
• to save time thinking of how to “word” things,
• and/or to use as a template for your courses.

So you’ve contacted your students, now what?

May I suggest some of the following:

Because we are all busy needing to learn new technologies (and each one will have its own unique learning curve) I am hoping that this will be something that can help save you time. Please pass this post on to the teachers you know that could benefit.

I put this (see below) where the students are used to finding the information.  In my classes I already have them working in the modules of Canvas (our course Learning Management System, LMS) for their classes, so the following is in our Week 10, Day 19. I suggest using what you have already trained the students to do – be it modules, announcements, emails, etc. This example is for a family history class and we were already on a semi-hybrid model.

Now, I can easily copy and paste it to my other courses and edit in the correct details for that class, letting them know what will remain the same and what will change as we move forward.

If you don’t have anything set up, consider the following:

As ever, I know that you can do this and I will keep adding ideas to help you. Feel free to send these posts along or to follow this blog if it is of use. I would also LOVE to hear your thoughts, comments, ideas, or suggestions.

Thank you!

Example of my first day information:

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Day 19: What Are We Going To Do Now?

Hello, Everyone!

Welcome back to our virtual rebooted class.

It will work very closely to what we were doing before –

• We’ll typically meet together once a week and the other day we will have an at-home type lesson with an assignment attached.
• All of the assignments that were previously part of the class will continue to be due on their scheduled dates – follow the modules.
• If you are behind and interested, you can check out extra credit assignments here: Resources

Here are some changes – 

• I’ll be putting you into groups so that you can still have connection together during this time (more on that later).
• You will need to be able to meet with us virtually – you can use your phone, a laptop, etc, in order to do that.
• There will be a few added assignments to accommodate this new learning style. I will try to be flexible and understanding of your time, but I also need you to understand that these assignments will be necessary to make sure that you have an engaging learning experience .
• Daily reading quizzes will be changed to reflect what we have done for that day’s work (I gave everyone full credit for the daily reading quiz for Monday’s (3/16) class. Please don’t take it again – unless you want late points or you don’t like to have full credit). 😉

For Wednesday’s (3/18) Class  – 

1. Please complete Monday’s Readings and Questions (so that you can discuss with a breakout group): Day 18: Finding Connection Through Family History (What an amazing coincidence – the whole day was going to be about connections – and right at the time when we seem to be forced into a global isolation. I truly believe that the Lord wants us to be connected into our Father’s Eternal Family and into our own families. What a great opportunity to do this!)
2. On Wednesday at our regular class time, please join me in our
   • Meeting Room  (7:45am)  (Links to an external site.)
   • Meeting Room (9am) (Links to an external site.)
3. You are welcome to set the software up ahead of time (see #4 below to learn how), I have sent up a virtual waiting room so that you can do that. 🙂
4. If you need to learn how to join this virtual classroom (hosted by Zoom), watch this video  (Links to an external site.)
5. Should (Zoom)  the virtual classroom fail, (and with the current situation, and all of the colleges relying on this tech, it may) check the announcements and I will have a back-up ready.
6. You guys are amazing –  keep moving forward!