This is a dynamic compilation of online teaching resources that have particular relevance to WMU faculty in CEAS. These resources are based on inquiries made to your Faculty Champions—Larry Mallak and Jim Springstead—and on better/best practices for delivering content and engaging with engineering and technology students in our programs.
1. Remote access to WMU/CAE computers:
Computer Access Instructions
2. Delivering Lectures Online-Asynchronously:
Level 1: Write lecture notes (in Word) and email to students.
Level 2: Scan your lecture notes and produce a narrated pdf version (either with Acrobat or just with a voice recording app on your phone or other device). Email to students as pdf and audio files.
Level 3: Produce a narrated PowerPoint. Here’s Larry’s video on how to do this. Upload to e-learning or a file-sharing space such as OneDrive.
Level 4: Produce a video either from “Export” on a narrated PowerPoint or from screencast software such as Camtasia or Loom (free). Upload to e-learning or a file-sharing space.
Pro tip: If you don’t have Camtasia or other screencast software, set up a video chat with yourself (using Webex, Teams, Zoom, or other platform), lock the meeting room, hit record, and start your lecture. Larry has a video on this, too.
3. Use more capabilities in e-learning:
WMUx has many tutorials on the Instructional Continuity page under “General Solutions.” See also the Quick Start Guides for e-learning tasks. Please access these materials for how to work with assignments, grades, exams/quizzes, and other e-learning features.
4. Method for students to share handwritten problem-solving sets in a quiz or exam:
After much testing, the current best method for this situation is to have the students either email the files to the instructor or TA or upload to an e-learning dropbox. You may wish to tell students they have 15 min. from the time they complete the quiz or exam to upload or email their files. They can either take a picture of their work or use an app such as Camscanner. Note that the file upload feature in e-learning quizzes does not behave reliably--sometimes the functionality shows up, sometimes it doesn't. It does work for files shared from Google Drive, but that may be too much to expect from students during an exam.
5. More quick tips to support remote teaching in CEAS courses:
Larry’s YouTube channel has additional videos on how to quickly import quiz questions into e-learning using a CSV file, using exam security tools such as Respondus Lockdown browser, and other topics.
6. How to do things online that you can't do IRL.
Several resources are available through our libraries and WMUx, and course developers and WMUx members can help design and implement your vision of what you would like in a course. For example, in one instance a biology professor was in contact with a course developer at WMUx and indicated that it would be ideal if he could virtually put the student inside a cell to visually show what was going on inside the cell, and it turned out that our library has some resources to assist with that vision. If you have a vision for your course, please reach out to WMUx and our WMU course development team.
7. Building online lab experiences.
Sometimes lectures and labs are taught in different sections or different courses. WMUx and course developers can help put you in contact with experts at WMU who can create videos to link between lecture content and hands-on laboratory experiences or create videos that can serve as an introduction to laboratory experiments. Furthermore, they can help create videos that can serve as experiences to introduce them to the laboratory facilities and/or laboratory coordinators.
8. Ways to deliver content asynchronously.
Delivering courses asynchronously can help with scheduling and allow for easy transition to fully online courses. Students often appreciate the convenience of asynchronously accessed material, and these materials can form a fully online course or supplement face to face lectures in a blended course format. WMUx and the course development team can help you create this asynchronous content in the form of screencasts or other formats as listed above.
For further information contact the Faculty Technology Center
at wmux-ftc@wmich.edu or call 269-387-6958