2 ways to plan for switching in-person to remote instruction for college instructors

As we walk in to the new year, we do so in the now very-precedented times of living under the scourge of the Coronavirus pandemic. However, many college students and instructors now find themselves in an unpredictable situation with a massive sense of deja vu: not knowing what the mode of instruction will be. Personally, I start the Winter quarter today at the University of Washington, Seattle where the University has made the decision to implement remote learning for the first week of the quarter and then reassess the situation after that. Similar decisions have also been made at other universities like Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, and many others.

The greatest difficulty this uncertainty is posing for me is determining the types of activities and content I will present in the class that I’m teaching this quarter. I find myself uncertain whether to plan for a fully remote, hybrid or mostly in-person format of learning. What is even more difficult is that the situation might rapidly change as the quarter goes on, as the state continues to monitor the infection and case rates.

If you’re an instructor teaching a college course this Winter and find yourself in a similar predicament, here are some tips I’ve put together to prepare content that is easily pivotable between remote and in-person learning.

Consider pre-recording lectures

I’ve personally found great benefit in pre-recording lectures for these uncertain times. This works for both in-person and remote settings because students can then consume the content at their own pace (usually at 2x speed, if I’m being honest) and class time can then be used for a shorter overview of some of the important highlights of the content and providing clarifications / answering questions on the material. This mode also somewhat equalizes students and instructors' access to Internet infrastructure and bandwidths, and helps manage attention spans.

Consider using Miro boards for activities that would normally involve sticky notes

Perhaps the remote learning software that I have used the most is Miro, a good alternative to using sticky notes for class or other activities. Even in in-person settings, I believe that Miro can be an effective tool where sticky notes would otherwise be used. This makes it easier to retain the information documented, which otherwise would have an extra step if physical sticky notes were being used.

I hope this is helpful to some of you, and I look forward to hearing what works for you in your classes! Hang in there, we’re going to get through this.