Make a great first impression with these practical suggestions.

• To adhere to Covid-19 policies, consider using the Canvas Roll Call Attendance tool, which includes a customizable seating chart. You can also use Zoom meeting reports to track attendance. Another option is Poll Everywhere.
• Use a “Getting Started” module in Canvas to deliver traditional first day materials (e.g., Syllabus, course overview, assignment expectations) ahead of time.
• Communicate your classroom policies and logistics. Will students be allowed to use laptops, earbuds? Will you identify a “Zoom wrangler” to monitor the online chat and relay messages from remote students?
• Let your students know when they can meet with you outside of class. Schedule online student hours.
• Have all students post an introduction in Canvas Discussions, then highlight some of them in class to get a conversation started.
• Use icebreaker activities in Poll Everywhere.

With some innovation and creative use of technology, your learning activities can be accessible to all students, regardless of their physical location. Use the following list as a springboard for ideas:

• Deliver lectures. Use UD Capture to record for delivery outside of class time. Use Zoom to include students during class time and make a recording for delivery later. Use a document camera or alternative white board. Upload slides to Canvas. 
• Facilitate active learning.  Use breakout rooms in Zoom, combine students in small groups or pairs. Use PollEverywhere and Canvas Quizzes (including practice quizzes).
• Hold class discussions. Prepare questions in advance and consider cold calling on students. Use a spreadsheet with a randomized list of student names to ensure that each student is called on at least once. Extend class discussions online through Canvas Discussions.
• Show a video, film, movie. Contact UD Library Film and Video. Upload to Media Gallery in Canvas.
• Manage group projects. Use the Groups feature in Canvas. Use breakout rooms in Zoom, combine students in small groups or pairs. Use Canvas Collaboration (Google Docs/Office 365). Use Google JamBoard shared whiteboards.
• Assess students through presentations, critiques, video projects. Use Google Slides, Instagram, WordPress. Create a student video assignment in Canvas. Create a student video gallery.
• Ask students to conduct peer reviews/evaluations. Use Canvas Groups, Canvas Peer Reviewed assignments. Participate in the Feedback Fruits pilot. 
• Assess student learning.  (e.g., tests and quizzes, surveys, knowledge checks, problem sets). Use the Canvas quiz tool. Learn about assessment options and alternatives at UD. Use a Quiz in your videos in My Media. Use Poll Everywhere activities.

Getting to the end of the semester is rewarding because the semester is coming to a close and your relationships have developed over time with your students. This time in the semester can also be very time consuming with planning and finalizing summative assessments, interventions for underperforming students, submitting final grades and setting aside time to reflect on what worked well and your opportunities for improvement for the next semester. As you prepare to wrap up your semester, use the following list of suggestions and considerations.

• • Use your course evaluation as a tool for feedback. 
    • As faculty, you have the opportunity to customize and add your own questions to your course evaluation. There are opportunities to formulate specific questions to gather feedback from your students related to teaching modality. This can later build into your self-reflection for the semester.
  • Develop summative assessments.  
    • Summative assessments. Summative assessments are commonly used in courses. Depending upon the level of your course, these assessments might also be supplemented with research papers, final exams and final individual or group projects. The following are some examples of summative assessments:
    • Take-home exams. Develop take-home exams with open book in Canvas Quizzes with/without time limits other than due dates for submission. Questions in these exams could include multiple answer questions, multiple dropdown questions or essay questions, matching comparisons, and/or formula quiz questions. These question types might also help to prevent academically dishonest behaviors.
    • Use a Canvas file upload quiz question to have students upload a completed response to case studies for assessing learning mastery through their reflection of knowledge.
    • Individual and/or Group Projects. These final project assessments can be competency and/or problem-based and play an essential role in learning mastery as well as provide real-world experiences linked to the course content. These project assessments can be designed with Canvas assignments for individual or group projects. Canvas Groups or Canvas Collaborations with Google Docs can be designed for collaborative projects.
    • E-Portfolios are a multifaceted Canvas tool that can be used for individual and group projects as well as for self-reflective journaling for overall learning mastery. Reflective journaling could be assigned to learners for reflecting on their progress throughout the course.
    • Videos for final projects. Provide students with options for presentation tools such as Google Slides, Instagram, WordPress. Create a student video assignment in Canvas and develop your grading criteria and expectations with a grading rubric. Ensure to provide a few video examples as guidance for students.
• Wrap-up any on-going interventions for students.
• • • Ensure you are reaching every student. Regardless of our efforts, there are often a small number of students underperforming throughout the semester. For the duration of the semester, there are several Canvas messaging tools that you can use to reach those students. As the semester comes to a close, you begin wrapping up these interventions: messaging students who, canvas inbox messages, annotative feedback using doc viewer canvas speedgrader, feedback submission comments in your efforts to begin finalizing final grades.
• Make your intentional plan for submitting final grades.
• • • Meeting the needs of our dynamic students during this time can be a lot of work. Ensure to give yourself intentional time for reviewing all final papers, projects, and assignments. Use speedgrader and the canvas gradebook to help you manage your final grades for your courses.
• Revisit your assessment plan for your final exam. 
• • • Be strategic about the planning and timing of your final exams based on the dynamics of your students. Many students’ access and reliability for connectivity may change during the semester. Consider if some students will need to use ProctorU while others will take exams in class. Ensure that your assessment plan is still viable based on what you were initially planning for your final exam.

• Take time to self-reflect on what did and what didn’t work well.

• • We do not always remember to carve out time for self-reflection because our semesters are busy. It is great practice to be intentional about making time to sit quiet and reflect on the semester experience. Consider these questions: what strategies would you keep regardless of the pandemic? what would you continue to incorporate in your classroom teaching? How would you continue to teach it?