Remote learning may be a new experience for some of you. While the deliver mode may seem confusing at first, your faculty and staff are confident that you will have a good experience if you prepare yourself.
- Most important for success in your courses is to stay in close communication with faculty Make sure you check your Hiram email and Moodle account regularly. Your faculty member will not accept the excuse that you didn’t check your email or Moodle messages. Check your Clutter and Junk Folders to make sure you aren’t missing Moodle Announcements.
- Use faculty office hours. On campus, there are many opportunities to get information from other students and faculty. When you are learning remotely it will be helpful to use virtual office hours more regularly to make sure you’re not missing something and that all of your questions are answered.
- Always be prepared and organized. Make a calendar for yourself, which includes your class times and your homework assignments.
- Check well before your Zoom session for any materials or assignments that the professor has shared through email or Moodle and read or complete the assignment.
- Note that your professor may have tweaked the syllabus, projects, or grading because of the new modality. Please check out Moodle or look at your email.
- Attend all of the Zoom class sessions. You and your classmates will be learning synchronously (at the same time). Your teacher will inform you if there is a video or other activity that you will do asynchronously (not at the same time).
- Your professors may have already provided guidelines for “netiquette.” Remember that when learning online or remotely through Zoom, you will be expected to observe every day courtesies. Please be polite and use formal language. Be aware of another student’s point of view or of any cultural differences. Remember that being sarcastic or funny online may not come across the same way it does when you are in person. At the same time, try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt if a classmate is not clear during a remote or online class discussion.
- Remind yourself or read up on time management tips because you will need to be even more organized when learning remotely.
- The good news is that you are learning a new skill. Increasingly, video-conferencing will replace work-travel and other meetings. Throughout your lifetime, you will have many opportunities or requirements to meet or learn online or through web conferencing. You will be prepared!
Suggestions for a good Zoom video conference discussion:
- Keep your video on. Just as keeping your eyes up and engaged with others in the class is important in face-to-face discussion, keeping your video on is important in Zoom discussions. Show that you are connected to the discussion by maintaining that contact with the class.
- Raise your (virtual) hand. Speaking in an online videoconference can be difficult, as you may have a harder time knowing when you can enter the conversation. Use the hand raise feature to signal you are ready to speak.
- Keep your microphone muted until you are ready to speak. If your microphone is not muted, you may be contributing more background noise to the class than you anticipate.
- Write your thoughts down. It may take a bit longer to get into the conversation when you are in a Zoom discussion. Don’t be afraid to take notes as the discussion progresses so that you will be ready to speak when your turn arises. This will also help you respond to others—to the entirety of the discussion—not just to the initial question or the last point made.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions and to draw others into the conversation.
How to do well in forum discussions
Online forum discussions are necessarily different than face-to-face discussions. Good online discussion requires paying attention not only to the question your professor asks, but also to what you have read in the class and what others are saying in the discussion.
For the initial discussion response:
- Respond to the discussion assignment prompt. Pay attention to whether you are addressing the prompt from the professor. Are all parts of the prompt addressed in your reply?
- Apply the assigned reading(s). Use what you are reading to respond to the post. Do you show that you understand the reading as you incorporate that information into your response?
For the response to the group discussion:
- Show that you have read and are considering multiple points of view from the discussion thread. Respond to multiple viewpoints in the discussion, and either build upon those viewpoints or refute them respectfully.
- Be timely and engaged. Work to be an active part of the ongoing discussion, not simply a participant who drops in comments one time and then leaves the discussion. Don’t wait until the last minute to post.
- Be respectful. It can be more difficult to read intent online, so avoid sarcasm and work to be polite and respectful of the opinions of others.
We are all embarking on this academic adventure together. Let’s do our best to help each other be as successful as possible. That’s the Hiram way, and it will really be important now.
