Due to the continued rapid pace of communications and many daily changes, your faculty teaching and technology support partners will begin to communicate with you more regularly regarding instructional and technology support and planning resources necessary to ensure academic continuity for the fall term. Starting this July, the Office of Information Technology (OIT), in direct collaboration with the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) and SMU Libraries, will be expanding the frequency of joint communications and resources explicitly geared toward SMU’s fall academic continuity. Our goal is to provide more regular information and clarity as you navigate the changing requirements and challenges of upcoming course preparations.
Category: Classroom Support
Classroom Technology Updates: Preparing for Fall
Each year, SMU leadership and the Academic Technology Council reviews and approves a collection of classroom upgrade projects to be funded by the University Technology Fund. Project requests are submitted by each school in addition to identified major maintenance/fixes based on the age or current state of each room. These are vetted and prioritized to ensure we are providing stability across classroom experiences while also modernizing the technology in as many spaces as possible. In addition to the classrooms funded by the University, several schools or departments independently fund additional upgrades that are critical to their environment. The majority of these projects are conducted during either the summer months or during winter break to minimize impact to teaching.
The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically altered this year’s original upgrade plans. Instead of the original proposal of work, Continue reading Classroom Technology Updates: Preparing for Fall
Preparing for Fall 2020: Ensuring All Faculty Have the Resources for Instructional & Technology Needs to Support Multiple Teaching Modes
Thank you for all of your work over the past few months, your instructional creativity, flexibility, and service toward meeting the needs of all students during these extraordinary times continues to differentiate the SMU experience.
We know that many of you have questions about teaching in Summer 2 and in the Fall. We apologize for the length of this message, but we want to provide you as much detail as possible. While we do not have answers to all of your questions, our hope is this message provides additional clarity about the upcoming terms. Please read the entire message and reach out with any additional questions that you may have regarding instructional preparation.
As you know, the planning for a phased re-opening of SMU’s classrooms for face-to-face, in-person instruction is well underway. Every Summer 2 and Fall 2020 course will need to support SMU’s long-standing expectation for high-quality instruction with students who may be in person or remote (you might have heard this called “HyFlex” instruction; Please see EDUCAUSE’s 7 Things You Should Know About the HyFlex Course Model for a good definition of this mode). In practical terms, HyFlex classes require the continuance of remote instruction while at the same time delivering in-person instruction—connecting the two using technology systems like Zoom and Canvas. In order to ensure that fully online courses continue to meet the same learning goals as in-person instruction, online courses will require high standards of course materials and pedagogy.
Whether in person or online, we want to make sure that all SMU faculty have the resources— instructional and technology— to successfully teach in the new instructional world that we will enter in the weeks and months ahead.
To that end, the Office of Information Technology (OIT), the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), and the SMU Libraries are doing the following things: Continue reading Preparing for Fall 2020: Ensuring All Faculty Have the Resources for Instructional & Technology Needs to Support Multiple Teaching Modes
Teams pivot to support simultaneous in-person and online classes this fall
Classroom instruction has been turned upside down this year, shifting from 100% in-person to 100% online. As we return to the Hilltop for Summer 2, we are anticipating yet another transition where instruction occurs in both online and face-to-face modalities simultaneously. Pedagogically, this will require a good bit of flexibility for faculty. The classroom technology to support this hybridized approach is also very different and complex. Continue reading Teams pivot to support simultaneous in-person and online classes this fall
Keep Teaching: Week In Review
(April 6, 2020)
Finding the New Normal
There has been little time throughout the events of the last month for much thoughtful reflection as to the nature of what we’re doing and what we’ll be doing next. While initial online readiness meant deploying and activating essential online basics to get up and running, week two found us rapidly working to normalize online classrooms as well as working to stabilize student experiences.
As our unprecedented teaching odyssey continues, right alongside a continual, often dizzying narrative of information and misinformation about what’s going on in the world versus what’s going on with Zoom continues, please remember that we’re here to help you navigate and simplify the complex work of online teaching. If you’re struggling to embrace new online teaching technologies, to make course modifications, or to develop new testing and quizzing options, we can help. Continue reading Keep Teaching: Week In Review
(April 6, 2020)
