The Center for Teaching Innovation is here to help you actively engage your students in their learning. To do so, we have assembled a series of informative webinars, consultation services, and hands-on workshops that offer options for both independent and guided support. The side navigation links provide specific consultation services, quick start guides, accessibility tools, and the resources below will help you to plan, prepare, and teach your courses in a flexible range of environments.

As always, whether a course is taught in person or online, course materials should be accessible to all students. Student Disability Services works closely with faculty to support students who may need specific accommodations (e.g., support to complete classwork or additional time for examinations). In addition, for online instruction, Cornell offers an array of services to support faculty. The university will shortly introduce additional resources such as Ally, a platform that enables instructors to quickly discover any accessibility issues. Also, the Center for Teaching Innovation will provide both consultation services and support for specific tools (captioning video recordings, providing alternate text for images, and more) to facilitate accessibility in an online learning environment. Further, the library can help identify teaching materials that are already fully accessible and, in many cases, the judicious choice of such materials greatly alleviates accessibility issues.

Many of the actions you will likely want to take will be implemented through Canvas. This powerful hub provides access to a number of tools useful for communicating, teaching, and assessing in online or hybrid settings.

CTI will continue to develop and enhance this site in response to the evolving situation and to answer instructors' questions as they emerge. We expect that within the coming weeks we will be able to introduce new resources for accessible course design, active learning pedagogical strategies, and course design support. Please stay in touch.

Hybrid & Online Course Development: Plan, Prepare, Teach

Plan, Prepare, Teach is a framework to expedite hybrid and online course development and delivery to move beyond remote teaching toward engaging, student-centered learning. The framework emphasizes applying evidence-based practices for learners, aligned with learning outcomes, while ensuring accessibility for students. University Counsel has prepared Accessibility Guidelines to help with hybrid and online course development.

Plan | Prepare | Teach

Plan

1. Explore Planning Your Course: A Decision Guide to think about situational factors affecting your course design, and then determine your learning outcomes.

• Make sure your syllabus is updated and reflects how you will teach remotely
• Identify gaps (in course content, technical skills, readiness and comfort, etc.)
• Check guidelines for weekly teaching time expectations* by course duration and credits
• Check time estimates for instructional and learning activities* to plan student activity times

* The weekly teaching time expectations and time estimates for instructional and learning activities above were developed by Pennsylvania State University. The guidelines and estimates also match New York State Education Program policies.

Prepare

2. Check available technology tools and resources for remote teaching

• Create and assemble your course content to support your activities
  • Check the video tool comparison table to decide which options best address your course
  • Create video lectures and recorded sessions or interviews (including captions) using Zoom (live sessions), Panopto (record lectures), and/or Kaltura (share video content)
  • Create or modify downloadable resources (Office, PDF, etc.) to ensure they are accessible to your students
  • Use other digital options as needed to engage and assess your students, such as PowerPoint Voiceover (to record a slide show with narration), Gradescope (to streamline and standardize paper-based, digital, and code assignments), iClickers (to poll students), Digication (to create digital portfolios)
• University Counsel has prepared Accessibility Guidelines to help with the online course development process.
• Build or reorganize your Canvas course with the flow of your student’s learning path in mind and ensure your content is accessible (Review a course example)
• Evaluate your course by using the Online Course Readiness Checklist as a guide

Teach

3. Set expectations, be present, and connect with students

• Promote an inclusive environment
• Make accommodations
• Facilitate group activities
• Deliver your assessments and promote academic integrity

Please email us with any questions or for more information on these and other resources for teaching online.