Instructional Continuity: Adapting To Virtual Instruction: Phase 1
An array of events can disrupt faculty’s ability to teach courses via on-campus, in-class sessions. Cal Poly is committed to providing students the opportunity to complete courses despite disruptions. Steadily advancing communication and instructional technologies have greatly enhanced faculty’s ability to provide quality virtual learning experiences.With planning, training on selected user-friendly technologies, and mentoring on effective instruction, faculty can continue instruction through many forms of instructional disruption.
Guide For Adapting Course to Virtual Instruction
These resources will help you examine some key aspects of your on-campus course while preparing it for virtual delivery. Cal Poly provides a broad array of user-friendly, reliable instructional technologies designed to support secure and engaging learning. Most are familiar to almost all students and instructors. Recommendations reflect the digital online technologies already available to all instructors and students at Cal Poly.
Decisions about which technology tools to select for which course components and how you use them is the purview of each instructor. Following this guide can help you to focus on the tools you should use for your particular course and how to use them more effectively for virtual instruction. You can then turn to the CTLT's "Instructional Continuity" web pages and support programming for effective, time-efficient preparation, and recommendations for best practices.
To begin with, however, the first step is to reflect thoughtfully on your course to identify what changes you might make, to accommodate the new medium in which you will be teaching due to a disruption to on-campus delivery. Following these steps to adapt a course from in-class to virtual instruction will result in a better course experience for you and you students, even when under severe time constraints. This process may also reduce your stress and uncertainty about adapting your courses, and result in more effective instruction and greater learning for students.
Phase 1
Here are the steps for Phase 1 (of 2):
1. Identify Essential Course Learning Outcomes
- Review your course’s learning outcomes (LOs) to re-establish a clear focus on the purpose of the course and the essential knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire by the end of the course.
- If there are any LOs that could be considered preferred but not essential, consider streamlining this iteration of the course. Perhaps trim or reduce the scope of one or more to keep the course experience centered on the essential learning outcomes. This may involve consultations with other faculty who teach the same course as well as faculty who teach courses that depend on your course for preparing students with key skills and knowledge.
2. Identify Essential Course Assessments
- Review the various forms of assessment (both formative and summative) that are intended to provide evidence of students’ level of achievement on the essential LOs identified in Step 1.
- If there are any assessments that could be considered preferred but not essential, consider streamlining this iteration of the course. Perhaps trim or reduce the scope of one or more of the assessments to keep the course experience centered on the essential assessments for the essential learning outcomes. This may involve consultations with other faculty who teach the same course as well as faculty who teach courses that depend on your course for evidence of key skills and knowledge.
3. Identify Essential Course Learning Activities
- Review the course learning activities intended to propel students toward progress on the essential learning outcomes identified in Step 1, as demonstrated by their achievement on essential assessments identified in Step 2.
- If there are learning activities that could be considered preferred but not essential, consider streamlining this iteration of the course. Perhaps trim or reduce the scope of one or more of the activities to keep the course experience centered on the essential activities, assessments and outcomes. This may involve consultations with other faculty who teach the same course as well as faculty who teach courses that depend on your course for key skills and knowledge.
4. Complete Your Adapted Course Design
- Enter your essential LOs, assessments and learning activities into your Adapted Course Design Template (see below).
- This is your revised course design, adapted to be appropriate for the extraordinary circumstances of virtual teaching and learning during periods of unplanned campus disruptions.
Adapted Course Design Template
(click here to download editable document)
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Essential Learning Outcomes |
Essential Assessments |
Essential Learning Activities |
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(One LO per cell in this column) |
(List all assessments relevant to this LO: quizzes, tests, projects, papers, assignments, etc.) |
(List all learning activities relevant to this LO: discussions, lecture notes, group work, exercises, practice problems, etc.) |
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