Remote and blended teaching

Glasgow's 7 principles of remote and blended teaching

The University has agreed upon these to inform your choices, guide your processes, and ensure a consistent and high-quality experience for students across their curriculum.

Start by familiarising yourself with the 7 Principles. The University has put these in place to make sure that your students receive a comparable experience across their curriculum, and to support strong student outcomes as well as high student satisfaction on your courses by the end of the year.

The explanation of each Principle below includes suggestions of how it could be applied, along with links to relevant technologies that may help you achieve it.
You may also wish to familiarise yourself with the University of Glasgow's definitions for on-campus learning, blended learning, hybrid learning, and online learning.

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1: Active Learning

Principle: Students should be active and not passive learners (i.e. they need to do something, not just consume)

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Providing varied pathways through your course to allow for learner choice, rather than necessarily always enforcing a linear, week-by-week release of content
  • Multiple instances of Moodle Lesson, creating parallel pathways of activities
  • Release content on the basis of completion tracking in Moodle so that students can progress as soon as they are ready, but also only after they have completed pre-requisites in a sensible order
  • ‘Moodle Minimum’ guide
  • Providing early and regular opportunities for students to apply what they have learned, e.g. by contributing to a discussion or considering a particular problem or issue
  • Delivering lectures sessions that are divided into 10-min chunks, creating gaps for activity
  • Breakout rooms in Zoom, activated for a short period during a larger lecture
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Create interactive elements using the H5P plugin for Moodle
  • Create private Moodle areas visible only to students allocated to a particular Group; useful for private discussions via a forum, or for collaborating on project work
  • Asynchronous discussions via Moodle Forums
  • Consider whether there is scope to make your assessments any more meaningful; e.g. setting more realistic tasks for someone working in your subject area, or asking students to demonstrate capabilities beyond retaining knowledge
  • Moodle Quiz (questions and answers take place within Moodle)
  • Moodle Assignment (students create a file and upload for marking)
  • Peer-review via Aropa or Moodle Workshop so that students can learn from A) applying your supplied rubric; B) peer feedback based on that rubric; and C) comparing the level of their work to that of others

*These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

2: Peer Engagement

Principle: Students should have the opportunity to engage / learn with peers

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Splitting students into small groups and asking them to work on a project together
  • Group function in Moodle to set up private areas
  • Breakout rooms in Zoom, activated for a short period during a larger lecture
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Asking students to post and then to critique each other’s forum posts
  • Moodle Forum
  • Using elements of gamification: put students into teams and set a task or challenge; either time it, or have the class vote on which team has produced best content / artefact

Very dependent on the type of content you ask your students create, but could ask them to post content to:

  • Moodle Wiki
  • Moodle Workshop
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Contributing to a shared document or wiki
  • Moodle Wiki
  • Microsoft Teams

Note: To make working with peers more inclusive, it is important to introduce the concept of working with peers / groupwork, and why it is considered beneficial. It can be useful to provide an introduction to what behaviour is expected, and to either assign certain roles to each member of the group or to encourage them to do so.

 *These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

3: Construction of Own Knowledge

Principle: Students should construct understanding by building on and expanding existing knowledge, where possible

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Explicitly asking students to collate what they think they know about a topic, e.g. in a discussion forum
  • Moodle Forum
  • Showing your students how your course links to courses they have previously completed. Very often, understanding how prior knowledge / understanding links to what is about to come allows students to put their developing knowledge into context.

    You might include activities such as putting students into teams and tasking them to collate knowledge around a specific topic. In this way, stronger students, or students who are familiar with a topic, can help students who have no prior knowledge
  • Channels in Microsoft Teams

*These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

4: Co-design of the Curriculum

Principle: Students should be given the chance to contribute to their learning through elements of co-design

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Allowing students to make suggestions for readings (this can be done in the first week of class)
  • Moodle Forum
  • Moodle Wiki
  • Having students create a quiz or activity. The group with the best one gets full points, while the rest of the class completes the assignment

e.g. students in a writing class reinforced their learning by creating their own practice mid-semester quiz, and the students who created the best had some of their questions featured on the actual mid-semester exam
  • Aropå, for anonymous peer-review (can be set up for group or individual submissions)
  • Moodle Quiz

*These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

5: Independent Learning

Principle: Students should be guided towards becoming independent / self-directed learners

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Having clear ILOs and criteria for assessment, and make sure students know what is expected of them
  • ‘Moodle Minimum’ guide
  • Helping students in setting achievable learning goals, and to closely monitor these goals
  • Supporting students in identifying challenges to achievement, e.g. through a learning contract or logbook
  • Incorporating elements of self-reflection throughout the course
  • Mahara, which allows creation of an portfolio of successive pieces; allows students to track their progress and goals across the year
  • Designing learning activities that help students develop independent learning skills such as time management, problem-solving, information appraisal, critical thinking, etc. to prepare them to be effective lifelong learners
  • Moodle Assignment (students create a file and upload for marking)

*These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

6: Feedback

Principle: Students should benefit from ongoing feedback on their learning as they participate

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Helping students to capitalise on the opportunity for feedback, e.g. you could use feedback proformas that accompany assessment tasks (particularly formative ones), where learners ask for specific feedback and feedforward
  • Incorporating opportunities for students to provide feedback to, and receive feedback from, their peers. Introduce this in low stakes activities to begin with, building up as knowledge and skills develop.
  • Peer-review via Aropå or Moodle Workshop so that students can learn from A) applying your supplied rubric; B) peer feedback based on that rubric; and C) comparing the level of their work to that of others

*These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

7: Relationship-building

Principle: Students should be supported in creating relationships in class, which they can build on through private study and other self-directed learning and social activities

Ways in which you might apply this principle

Tools or techniques that would achieve this*

Learn more
  • Allocating time to community building / social spaces within a class or course. For example, induction activities at the start of the course could include opportunities for social activities.
  • Utilising groupwork, which promotes teamworking. Tasks should be designed to be complex enough to require a collaborative effort. For example, the jigsaw classroom approach requires that students research specific elements and share the outcomes of their learning with their group, producing a composite artefact for the purposes of learning and assessment
  • Facilitating virtual study rooms open during specific hours students can just drop in
  • Channels in Microsoft Teams
  • Zoom
    • Option 1: start with a plenary session then activate breakout rooms; can be allocated randomly at the click of a button or by pre-uploaded list, either way, control is only with the meeting host
    • Option 2: separate Zoom meetings titled by discussion topic; students can pick which one they want to join when the time comes

 
  • Consider using third-party tools to create ‘social’ spaces as distinct from official learning communities on UofG approved platforms.
    • Be aware that third-party tools may have GDPR implications. If you are not managing the process and are therefore not processing student data, the data relationship will be directly between the third party and the student. It will be up to the student to agree to that relationship.
    • Consider whether a platform will be accessible to everyone when recommending it, or consider pointing this out to students when suggesting they make their own recommendations.
  • As an example, students in some subject areas already use NetflixParty.com or the ‘watch party’ feature on Facebook for synchronous social watching with classmates

(Disclaimer: these are third-party services unassociated with the University of Glasgow)

 *These are illustrative examples, and further technologies may become supported by the University

Further guidance

Adapting lectures

Rather than delivering or recording full, 50-minute lectures, we recommend that you break each session down into chunks more suited to an audience sitting at their computer, e.g. 10-15 minute segments.

These could either be pre-recorded for students to watch in their own time, or delivered live at scheduled class times, incorporating periods for students to interact (either with you, with other, or with materials) in order to comfortably break up the session.

For scheduled class times, beyond breaking up your whole lecture into shorter chunks, you are free to apply your own judgement in determining the right balance between live presentation, pre-recorded video, and activities to suit your own course.

From 24 Sep 2020, the new UK digital accessibility regulations mean we have a legal obligation to make any material presented online fully accessible. Bear in mind that slideshows you present via screen share over Zoom etc. are not accessible to assistive technologies such as screen readers. Your presentations will therefore also need to be available as separately downloadable files.

For full details on making your materials accessible, see the Digital Accessibility webpages. 

Advice from How To Moodle

See the section headed 'Content creation: recording in Zoom' 

This includes:

   - How to record PowerPoint using Zoom
   - How to record the Zoom Whiteboard for worked examples
   - Checking your recording and transcript on Zoom
   - Adding your Zoom recording to Moodle
   - How to reduce the size of your video files

Advice from Upskilling Session recordings

These can be played back at 1x, 1.5x, or 2x speed.

   - Lecture Capture: Chunking and active learning opportunities (Wed 10 June) (54 mins)
   - Importance of Signposting in Remote Teaching (Fri 12 June) (42 mins)
   - 15 Recording Tips in 10 Mins (Wed 15 Jul) (21 mins)
   - Asynchronous vs Synchronous (Mon 13 Jul) (25 mins)
   - Design Tips for PowerPoint (Wed 22 Jul) (53 mins)
   - Digital Accessibility Regulations 2018 (Fri 10 Jul) (49 mins)

All recordings have an interactive transcript, allowing you to click and jump to a specific point. (If you can't see the transcript, widen your browser window and the page will reformat to show it on the right.)

If prompted to log in:

  • Select Sign in with SSO
  • Domain: uofglasgow
  • Log in using your GUID and password

You should then be redirected back to the recording

Adapting small group teaching (tutorials, seminars, etc.)

These will be particularly important in making your students feel part of a class rather than separate, isolated recipients of your teaching. Evidence from existing online courses demonstrates that encouraging a sense of community will likely help maintain student satisfaction on your course, engagement, and retention. 

Advice from How To Moodle

See the section headed 'Seminar, tutorial and meeting alternatives' 

This section of How to Moodle includes guides on:

Zoom

   - Teaching with Zoom
   - Adding a Zoom meeting to your Moodle course
   - Linking your Zoom recording to your Moodle course
   - Zoom add-on for Outlook
   - Online meetings using Zoom

Teams

   - Using Teams
   - Using Teams for group work - a UofG pilot study

For our full range of advice, see www.gla.ac.uk/HowToMoodle 

Advice from Upskilling Session recordings

These can be played back at 1x, 1.5x, or 2x speed:

   - Using Moodle for Group Work (40 mins)
   - How to Set Up Presentation Recording and Submissions for Your Learners (30 mins)
   - Using Moodle Forums for Successful Online Engagement (38 mins)
   - Design Tips for PowerPoint (53 mins)
   - Copyright 101 for Remote Teaching (44 mins)
   - Digital Accessibility Regulations 2018 (49 mins)

All recordings have an interactive transcript, allowing you to click and jump to a specific point. (If you can't see the transcript, widen your browser window and the page will reformat to show it on the right.)

If prompted to log in:

  • Select Sign in with SSO
  • Domain: uofglasgow
  • Log in using your GUID and password

You should then be redirected back to the recording.

For others, see the full list of upskilling sessions.

Creating a solid Moodle infrastructure to support your course

Your students will access your teaching and course information via Moodle.

Any activities you create for your students to access before / during / after / between timetabled sessions should therefore also be placed on Moodle where possible, to help students navigate their remote course in one central place and this will also help you build a coherent infrastructure.

For our full range of advice, visit www.gla.ac.uk/HowToMoodle 

How to Moodle includes guides on:

   - The University of Glasgow Moodle Minimum guidelines for all Moodle courses
   - Example activities (Book, Lesson, Quiz)
   - Reasons why you might pick one activity over another
   - Moodle accessibility
   - The use of Turnitin for similarity checking

 

Selected advice from Upskilling Session recordings

These can be played back at 1x, 1.5x, or 2x speed:

   - Using Moodle for Group Work (40 mins)
   - How to Set Up Presentation Recording and Submissions for Your Learners (30 mins)
   - Using Moodle Forums for Successful Online Engagement (38 mins)
   - Digital Accessibility Regulations 2018 (49 mins)

All recordings have an interactive transcript, allowing you to click and jump to a specific point. (If you can't see the transcript, widen your browser window and the page will reformat to show it on the right.)

If prompted to log in:

  • Select Sign in with SSO
  • Domain: uofglasgow
  • Log in using your GUID and password

You should then be redirected back to the recording.

For others, see the full list of upskilling sessions.

Guidance for your students

Students will also need to adapt to studying, learning, and researching in a remote or blended fashion.