The primary tools we anticipate faculty using to interact with their students are:
- Learning platform for course delivery – Blackboard (learn.kent.edu)
- Conducting a real-time lecture or class discussion – Collaborate (a link will be added to all Blackboard courses)
- Recording and posting presentation - Kaltura
- Sharing Classroom materials - Blackboard
- Assignments and Assessment - Blackboard, Proctorio, email, etc.
Start by establishing your preferred method of delivering learning content to your students.
- Live (synchronous) lectures
- If you do live lectures, deliver them at your scheduled class time. Record lectures to allow students who may be ill to watch later.
- Recorded lectures (voice-over Powerpoint, or other video)
- Posted readings and videos
- Instructions for readings in printed books
Determine synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Synchronous learning is learning that occurs in real time, where the student would need to attend the course online at a specific time. Common features of synchronous learning include scheduled chat room or discussion board time for students to share ideas, scheduled video conferences or group phone calls, or live streamed lectures or demonstrations.
Asynchronous learning is learning that occurs at different times, allowing the student to self-pace through the course and log in at various times. Common features of asynchronous learning include recorded presentations (such as slideshows or video), email, discussion boards, or collaborative cloud-based documents.
Your course may be a combination of synchronous and asynchronous components. If you use synchronous web conferencing, you should consider providing alternatives incase students are unable to connect at the appropriate time.