The following resources and options are meant to provide a starting place for adjusting exams, projects, and collaborative work for online delivery.
In addition to uploading your syllabus, sharing course content, and communicating with students through Blackboard, using the grade center will allow you to post grades and provide feedback.
Supporting Students
Our students, whether familiar with online learning or not, may experience limitations to access that require your flexibility: for example, loss of access to preferred devices or software, inconsistent high-speed internet, varying time zones, personal illness or family obligations. Communicate regularly with your students to assess their changing needs and consider where you can be flexible with due dates, participation windows, and alternative ways to access course content. If students need accommodations because of a disability, contact Student Disability Services to determine the right support.
Academic Integrity
Students commit academic misconduct because they are anxious about their performance, unable to meet deadlines, or do not understand the rules and expectations for assignments. All of these stressors are heightened in the current public health crisis. The KeepTeaching team has provided the following recommendations:
- Give students clear expectations about how to cite their sources in written responses.
- Consider alternative modes of assessment as it may not be possible to monitor students’ use of outside resources.
- Articulate a clear and detailed policy on collaboration and communication about assignments.
- Provide guidance for students to access library resources remotely.
Alternative Forms of Assessment
Start with your learning outcomes; choose assignments that show whether students have met them. This may mean assessing concepts in ways that are new to you. Information-recall questions are not the most effective way to assess learning in online courses.
Authentic assessments work very well for the online environment. These assignments or exam questions ask students to demonstrate their knowledge and ability to negotiate complex tasks on relevant and real-life content, audiences, or formats (e.g., create a plan of care, create a statistical model, troubleshoot a problem, pitch an idea).
Proctored Assessments
Faculty may assign proctored assessments with the support of the Distance Education Testing lab, various lab sites on the regional campuses, or by adopting a browser-based remote test-proctoring tool. Please contact keepteaching@olemiss.edu for help in deciding the best option for your particular class.