We will update this page with new communications throughout the semester.
Table of Contents
Past Updates
AUGUST 6, 2020
Spare Students the Lecture?
What is the best use of “together time” in a mixed-delivery format? Before this spring, most instructors were used to spending their synchronous time by delivering a lecture to their students in a classroom. With the fall semester approaching, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence Director Martha Diede encourages instructors to consider changing their approach to synchronous meetings for the benefit of in-person and online learners alike.
“In the mixed-delivery format, faculty can be tempted to use their synchronous time for lecturing,” Diede says. “Then at the end of the class time, they feel exhausted because they’ve been managing the technology, the learners with them and the learners away from them. Or faculty feel exhausted because they’ve put forth a tremendous amount of energy to compensate for the lack of visual cues both from learners’ faces behind masks and from learners’ faces on screens. Making some changes to teaching practice can enhance learning and reduce fatigue.”
In her new post on the Online Success Toolkit, Diede suggests some additional teaching practices to help instructors lecture for learning. Examples include:
- Take advantage of research on attention. Studies show that even the most motivated students can maintain attention for only 15-20 minutes. Then they need a break to reset.
- If you use breaks, remind students to move around and not simply to shift attention to other on-screen activities. In class, have learners look away from screens and do something else.
- Break up a lecture with a quick activity like having learners change their screen names to one word that summarizes their most important concept from the previous 15-20 minutes.
The faculty support team—which comprises representatives from Information Technology Services, the Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence and the Center for Online and Digital Learning—is here to support you at every step from your course planning to your last class of the semester. You can contact help@syr.edu for any questions about teaching or teaching with technology.
For support with instructional design, content production, video recording, customization of your Blackboard course space and more, you can take advantage of our Blackboard Course Transition Services. To request assistance or find out more information, please fill out the Fall Course Development form.
Please also remember these online coaching and consultation opportunities:
- Teaching and Technology Tuesdays (Tuesdays at noon ET)
- Zoom Training: Teaching with Zoom (multiple times available)
- Kaltura Training Sessions (multiple times available)
- Faculty Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Workshop Series (asynchronous):
- Identifying and Reducing Implicit Bias in Pedagogical Decision-Making
- Establishing Civility and Positive Climate in Your Teaching Environment
- Problematizing Identity and Intersectionality on the College Campus
- Transparent Teaching: An Evidence-Based Inclusive Practice
- Navigating Challenges of Diversity in the Classroom
We look forward to working with you.
AUGUST 4, 2020
It's Getting Real
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We look forward to working with you.
JULY 21, 2020
There Is Still Time to Sign Up for Fall Course Transition Services
With the semester a month away, we encourage you to take advantage of the Fall Course Transition Services available until Aug. 3 through Syracuse University’s partnership with Blackboard. As a refresher:
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We look forward to working with you.
JULY 9, 2020
Four Steps to Jump-Starting Your Fall Course Transition
With the start of the fall semester less than seven weeks away, we wanted to share four steps to getting started with the Fall Course Transition Services available through Syracuse University’s partnership with Blackboard:
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This is not the semester that anyone envisioned. We realize that everyone’s situation is slightly different in terms of family, resources and more. Even so, please remember that you are not alone—we are all in this together. We look forward to helping you make the best of a challenging situation.
March 12, 2020
To support the transition to online course delivery effective at the end of the academic day on Friday, March 13, we will continue to send regular communications to ensure you have the most up-to-date information related to online teaching and learning. If you haven’t already, please bookmark the Academic Continuity Resources toolkit available at at Syracuse.edu/coronavirus/academic-continuity.
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