Move Your Face-to-Face or Hybrid Course Online

Steps for Maintaining Instructional Continuity

Circumstances may arise that require Lone Star College to move many courses to an online format via D2L (Brightspace by Desire2Learn). We understand that emergency situations are not ideal circumstances for creating quality online instruction; however, we still need to provide support and opportunities for student success. LSC-Online offers the following suggestions as a foundation for faculty moving their face-to-face (FTF) or hybrid instruction to an online format.

Overview

• Watch Welcome to Online Teaching , a video overview of LSC-Online resources

Access and Training

• Access D2L
• Enroll in the Online Teaching Certification
• Visit the VTAC event calendar or myWorkshops for information about upcoming training sessions
• View recordings of previous training sessions

Course Setup

• Activate your course
• Reconcile your D2L and iStar rosters

What You Can Put In Your Course

As a resource to guide you, we recommend the Course Development Checklist and Syllabus Template page for suggestions about what to include in your online course.

• Announcements – Provide announcements to keep students advised of the current situation. You can provide your contact information, the best times to contact you, any updates to course content, and remind them of due dates.
  
  
• Course Questions –  Create a "Course Questions" discussion topic to respond to students' questions and reduce the number of emails you receive throughout the term.
  
  
• Content – Create modules in order to add files and activities. Modules can be organized by weeks, chapters, topics, or types of instructional materials. Organized content modules will help students follow an easy path through your instructional materials and be assessed on learning outcomes. For example, each week you can assign a textbook reading, post videos, provide discussion topics, and have students take a quiz or submit a file to an assignment folder.
  • Add content to Modules and Submodules
    
    
• Record Lectures – You may create short videos to reassure your students you are there for them. We have a lecture capture tool that is user-friendly, secure, and provides a streaming service that is quick for recording, loading, and viewing. This is a good way to narrate PowerPoint slides for lectures; however, be sure to break up your topics into videos lasting 7 minutes or less to keep the students' interest and make captioning more manageable. All videos must be captioned. See Add Captions to TechSmith Knowmia Videos and  Accessibility at Lone Star College.
  
  
• Video Conferences – You may want to meet with your students in real time via Webex.
  • Meetings should occur only on the days and times originally scheduled for the FTF class.
    
    
• Gradebook – Set up the D2L gradebook (Grades) to help students know how they are doing.
  • Learn the difference between Weighted and Points Gradebooks
  • Set up a Weighted Gradebook
  • Add a column (item) to the gradebook
  • Enter student grades
    
    
• Assignments - Create Assignment Folders for students to submit papers and project files.
  • Grade assignment submissions
    
    
• Quizzes -  (Video Walkthough : Part 1 and Part 2)
  • Manage Quiz Properties
  • Use the Question Library
  • Add questions to a quiz
  • Manually grade quiz questions
  • Use Lockdown Browser & Monitor  for more secure quizzing
    • Lockdown Browser & Monitor Settings
      
      
• Discussions - Create discussions on a variety of topics.

Other Considerations & Resources

• Make course content accessible – Make sure all types of learners benefit.
• Online Faculty Handbook – Helpful printable guide for faculty new to teaching online.
• Recommended Practices in Online Course Design and Delivery – Booklet on Lone Star College best practices with online learning including what to put in the syllabus and different online instructional techniques.
• Share a course - Share a complete course or a "getting started" course template to keep courses in your department similar.
• VTAC (this site) – The Virtual Teaching Assistance Center is “the manual” for using D2L at Lone Star College. It is where you will find the most how-to documents and forms to help troubleshoot your online course. It is also available from the VTAC Support link in the top navigation of D2L.
• VLAC – The Virtual Learner Assistance Center is “the student manual” for using D2L at Lone Star College. Share this site with your students so they can get the “how-to” help they will need. It is also available for students from their VLAC Support link in the top navigation of D2L.

Course Activities and Assessments

The above table is based on the University of Houston Downtown’s Keep on teaching at UHD. (2020, March 16).