Learning Activities for Flexible Face-to-Face Classes : Teaching Online : Teaching Center : ��ǿ��

Learning Activities for Flexible Face-to-Face Classes

Face-to-face instruction may include new classroom conditions such as masking. If your course includes face-to-face elements, be sure to consult both ��ǿ�� and AS&E academic policies to learn what health and safety procedures are in place, as well as what steps you must take to provide access to remote students.

Students, instructors, and TAs may feel uneasy or distracted due to the learning conditions in a pandemic, and classroom management best practices recommend explicitly acknowledging and addressing such factors. You might choose to acknowledge the learning conditions through your own commentary or through a brief student discussion. In either case, you can set course expectations by referencing mandatory ��ǿ�� policies and any applicable New York State regulations, as well as any additional information about how they apply in your course.

If you have options for how to apply required policies in your course, consider using a collaborative process. Inviting collaboration enhances student agency and can lead to greater student buy-in for course-specific expectations.

Once you have acknowledged the learning conditions and set expectations, follow through with addressing any student non-compliance with all applicable policies so that students will know what to expect.

In addition to the content below, you can find additional recommendations for office hours, lectures, and seminars, as well as online synchronous and online asynchronous instruction, in the other pages of this Teaching Your Course section.

Managing Remote Students

Many face-to-face courses will also be managing remote students. The options for managing remote students include providing:

Alternative asynchronous or synchronous online content
Synchronous or recorded asynchronous viewing of the face-to-face class
Active synchronous engagement in the face-to-face class (video feed plus a return input opportunity from remote student in video, audio, or text-based form)

Alternative or Recorded Content

If you are providing alternative online content or asynchronously-viewed class recordings, consider augmenting the viewing experience with additional asynchronous online content that requires student engagement and will help you assess the learning progress of remote students.

In its simplest form, this might be a discussion board where you answer questions from remote students about the class session. If you are providing recorded asynchronous viewing, you might .

Synchronous Engagement

If you are providing synchronous engagement, consider assigning someone to monitor and integrate remote students—preferably a peer educator or other course support person.

If your course does not have a peer educator and the nature of the class does not permit you to attend to integrating the online students into the course, you can assign a face-to-face student to assist with integrating the online students. This role may tax the attention of the face-to-face student, so consider doing so sparingly and rotating the monitoring role.

For information on how to use classroom technology for synchronous engagement, consult ECM's Classroom Technology Instructions or contact Event and Classroom Management. For assistance with classroom pedagogy, contact the Teaching Center.

Technology Resources for Physically-Distant Teaching

For times when physically-distanced conditions are required, many typical classroom activities are still viable, although some may need modification to address audibility challenges and limitations on circulation within the classroom. These technology resources can help mitigate some of these challenges, as well as integrate remote students:

Microphones can improve audibility
Documents can be distributed electronically
- Students can fill them out, , or perform other actions online, either as individuals or as groups
Students can use to create text-based documents or collections of different kinds of media
allows students to respond to questions in a variety of formats
Back channels can allow students to ask questions and contribute comments
Individual whiteboards and markers allow students to share manual writing that is visible across six-foot distances

Additional Resources

For more information about flexible learning see:

: This chart translates common face-to-face classroom activities into alternatives for synchronous online, asynchronous online, and physically-distanced face-to-face options.
: This blog post offers suggestions for transforming face-to-face activities into hybrid and physically-distanced options: class-wide discussion, live polling, backchannel, collaborative notetaking, group work, written work, hybrid pair work, jigsaw, fishbowl, and physical movement.
: These sample lesson plans offer suggestions for structuring classes lasting 40, 50, and 75 minutes that contain both face-to-face and both synchronous and asynchronous remote students.
: This online mini-course for Cal State instructors reviews strategies for building flexibility into courses. While this resource is most appropriate for course planning, Module three reviews flexible teaching strategies that can inform ongoing courses.

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