The plan for the fall 2020 semester includes a HyFlex blended approach to classroom instruction utilizing the latest classroom technology. A classroom directory has also been created, complete with an inventory of available technology, floorplans, and photos of classrooms. In HyFlex classes, students select the mode by which they will receive instruction, online or in-person. The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center has helpful tips on leveraging simple technologies to keep your class on schedule.
The Teaching, Learning and Technology Center has created a catalog of workshops to help faculty prepare for their Fall courses and utilize different technologies to enhance learning remotely and in the HyFlex model. To register for a workshop, visit the university event calendar.
All course materials, assignments and assessments are housed in Blackboard. The live synchronous sessions should be facilitated in Microsoft Teams or Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. Both a Blackboard course shell and a Team is created for every course session offered at the University.
Conduct class in real-time with Microsoft Teams or Blackboard Collaborate and use Blackboard to send emails or announcements.
Record a lecture with Echo360, hold online exams with RPNow, and create documents with Office365.
Post documents, videos, assignments and more to Blackboard. Create discussion boards, tests, and quizzes.
Remotely access library resources, e-books, and subject guides or speak with a librarian for your research needs.
Workshops are available to help faculty utilize different technologies to enhance their courses.
Create an interactive online classroom with Microsoft Teams. Teams supports group conversations, video conferencing (up to 49 screens), virtual breakout rooms and the ability to chat and share files. A team is automatically created for all courses. The instructor will need to manually enable the feature in the teams section in the app. A short video is available to explain the activation process.
In a Teams HyFlex classroom, the course is automatically scheduled and will appear on the Teams panel. The instructor and students will be automatically invited to the class meeting days/time. In a Teams appliance room, instructors start the class session from the Microsoft Teams panel in the room. Those in the room immediately see and hear students joining remotely. Both faculty and students can share their screen remotely, minimizing the need for handling any cables to connect to classroom technology.
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In a HyFlex classroom, the instructor will schedule the recurring meeting in Teams. In the room, there is no Microsoft Teams computer panel, the instructor joins the Teams class on her/his laptop and shares the material to all remote participants screens simultaneously. In order to display in the physical room, the instructor connects to the projector/screen using Airmedia/Solstice (if available) or with an HDMI cable. Students are also able to share their screens/content with the entire class via Teams.
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The Microsoft Teams software may be accessed via the web, desktop versions for Windows and Apple Macintosh platforms, as well as Apple and Android mobile devices. For the best experience, all students and faculty are encouraged to turn on the new Microsoft Teams Experience.
An alternative to Microsoft Teams, Blackboard Collaborate, a Blackboard tool where students and instructors can meet synchronously, or instructors can record lectures. Like Teams, presenters (both faculty and students if given the role) can share files, chat, poll, annotate, and record. Recorded lectures are available in Blackboard shortly after.
This tool provides instructors with the opportunity to demonstrate difficult material and break down content for students. Collaborate helps you create virtual classrooms, breakout sessions, and meeting spaces that foster exciting new learning opportunities while also increasing student engagement. Collaborate allows you to poll your participants, work together on an interactive white board, chat with participants, allow participants to virtually raise their hands for questions, import PowerPoint slides, share your computer screen or a particular window, share the microphone, use a webcam, and more. Events also can be recorded for later viewing.
Learn more about Blackboard Collaborate
Preparing for your first Blackboard Collaborate Session (PDF)
Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate Comparison (PDF)
Once you’ve created and/or posted your materials, you can email your class or use the Blackboard “Announcements” feature to notify your students that new course content has been posted. You can link to your materials from inside this announcement, regardless of whether the materials were uploaded to the Blackboard site or if they are an external recording.
Learn more about sending a Blackboard announcement.
In some cases, posting accessible text-based documents via Microsoft Word or PowerPoint presentations may suffice to give students some material to cover on their own time. However, you may want to record a narration for your materials to simulate the lecture you would have delivered.
In this event, first consider your comfort level with technologies. Select a technology that you have used before. Echo360 is a screen recording software that integrates with your course and with Blackboard. Real-time web conferencing is also available with Microsoft Teams. Echo360 allows you to capture a quick lecture video in a pinch on your own time, on your own device!
Lecture capture allows instructors to record instructional content on their own laptop/desktop or in their classroom. Students are then able to view the recording from within Blackboard. This provides students with a powerful tool to review content, access supplemental material or receive instruction that is web-based. Echo360 videos feature integrated closed captioning abilities and greatly expand the accessibility of your educational content.
LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within a learning management system. LockdDown Browser is best used for low-stake exams (quizzes and tests that are a low percentage of a student’s grades), Respondus LockDown Browser disables students’ desktop applications and Internet search capabilities. This keeps students from printing their exams, taking screenshots, chatting, looking up answers on the Internet, or pulling up applications such as Word or Excel that may contain notes or information for the exam. Unlike RPNow, there is no proctor when using Respondus LockDown Browser.
Remote Proctor (RPNow) is an online exam proctoring technology that enables online and distance learning students to take proctored exams from the comfort and convenience of their own home or office. RPNow is best used for high-stake exams (quizzes and tests that are a significant portion of a student’s grade). RPNow provides student verification, environmental check, and a proctor review of recorded video.
Students and faculty are eligible to receive a license of SPSS under the university campus site license for instructional, academic, and non-commercial academic research.
How to request SPSS:
SPSS Tutorials
Mathematica offers an interactive classroom experience that helps students explore and grasp concepts, plus gives faculty the tools they need to easily create supporting course materials, assignments, and presentations.
Mathematica Tutorials
Qualtrics, accessible via PirateNet, allows you to collect and filter large amounts of data. Data can be analyzed for myriad reasons, providing instructors will insight and individualized feedback. Specific rules can be used per question to look for intended information. Unlike Microsoft Forms, Qualtrics is a more advanced survey tool with much stronger capabilities. It is best used to survey a medium to large audience. For more information on Qualtrics, please visit the Qualtrics help page or speak with your instructional designer.
Microsoft Forms, accessible via PirateNet, is simple to use, works on any web browser, and comes with themes and question branching. Microsoft Forms collects responses in real time and automatically provides charts to visualize your data. Best of all, exporting to Excel lets you use the full power of Excel for customized, in-depth analysis. For more information, visit the Microsoft Forms help page or speak with your instructional designer.
After creating your materials, log in to Blackboard, access your course, and upload the materials into the course. Next, you can create a Page or an Announcement and link to the files you have uploaded, along with some contextual material.
You can link videos from LinkedIn Learning, YouTube, Vimeo, or other publicly-accessible video sharing sites to your course. Once you’ve uploaded a video or selected a pre-existing video that can serve as learning material for your lesson, copy the video’s URL and share it with your students inside your Blackboard course.
If you have used Echo360 to capture your lecture, then you can copy the link to the recording and post it inside Blackboard to direct students to that recording.
A new default course template was developed in Blackboard that will be used to create all courses. This template can be used as a starting place for rapid course design. Working with the LMS Review Committee comprised of members from the Faculty Senate and the IT Committee a new standard course template was created with pre-populated with University wide content. It is completely customizable to meet your learners needs. The template provides you with the foundation to build upon.
To promote active learning in an asynchronous environment, you may wish to use the Discussion feature in Blackboard to engage students and invite their participation. Simply post a prompt(s) and invite the students to lend their input, and/or respond to other student’s posts. Using Discussion, combined with clear instructions (due dates, netiquette expectations, etc.), can pique student’s interest in a topic and make them feel a sense of ownership in the material under discussion.
Beginning the week of March 16, students will begin to preregister for summer and fall courses. Remember that students may need help in selecting courses, so we are asking our faculty advisors to be flexible and exercise care to respond to students with their questions about courses. If there are specific times when they can meet via Microsoft Teams or via a phone consultation, please give them guidance on how to contact you. An advisor toolkit is also available. This toolkit provides advisors with easy to find information about campus resources.
Instructions are available for faculty and advisors to create online office hours and online advising availability in Compass. Advisors can also record their advising notes in Compass. Questions should be directed to the Academic Resource Center at arc@shu.edu.
Instructions for Accessing PIN Information
Some students have not engaged previously in online coursework. When you transition to the online format, please be very clear to students about how to access the course information and assignments. We have been getting questions about whether the classes are “meeting” at the same time as they would on campus. Be clear about when assignments need to be completed because some students may be in a different time zone.
Remotely access library resources, e-books, and subject guides or speak with a librarian for your research needs. Visit the Library Resources page to learn more.
Workshops relating to HyFlex teaching begin with “HyFlex”. Workshops relating to course design for online courses begin with “Course Design”. Workshops which can be used for both online and HyFlex courses begin with “HyFlex & Course Design”.
If you are unable to attend a workshop, session recordings are available in the Teaching with Technology Microsoft Teams channel.
Provide Constructive Feedback to your Students
Tuesday, December 1
This session will cover strategies for providing feedback to students, including Blackboard annotations on assignments, rubrics, test response feedback, Blackboard Grade Center options, and via Microsoft Teams.
Proctored and Secure Testing using RPNow
Thursday, December 3
Remote Proctor (RP) Now by Software Secure allows students to take exams from anywhere while being authenticated and proctored. This tool is perfect for high stakes exams.
Provide Constructive Feedback to your Students
Friday, December 4
This session will cover strategies for providing feedback to students, including Blackboard annotations on assignments, rubrics, test response feedback, Blackboard Grade Center options, and via Microsoft Teams.
The Teaching, Learning and Technology Center (TLTC) provides a number of resources available to faculty to enhance teaching and learning. If there is a tool or a resource that you would like to review further or would like to implement in your courses, please contact the Instructional Designer assigned to your department. If you experience technical issues and require assistance, please contact the Technology Service Desk at servicedesk@shu.edu or (973) 275-2222.
The Instructional Designers serve as a primary point of contact for all faculty technology projects. Each Instructional Designer is assigned to specific departments, Schools and Colleges within the University.
