The early months of 2015 saw record-breaking snowfall in the Boston area, causing wide-spread school closings.\u00a0What do you do when you need to cancel class or\u00a0the university is closed for inclement weather\u00a0or a flu outbreak? How do you ensure that your students don’t fall behind?<\/p>\n
In this first post in our Instructional Continuity series, we’ll explore some\u00a0ideas and strategies faculty have used\u00a0for communicating with students and replicating classroom discussions during school closures.<\/p>\n
Synchronous\u00a0Communication<\/strong> I scheduled a conference call during which we talked in real-time about some of the course content; I explained several concepts, and gave the students opportunities to discuss them.\u00a0 It wasn’t perfect, of course, but students later told me they were glad there were ways for us to keep in touch during all those snow cancellations.<\/p>\n Donna Halper Looking to step up the technology a bit? Try scheduling an online meeting via Skype for Business (Lync). Skype for Business allows you to create an online meeting where you may\u00a0communicate with your students, present information, or share your screen.<\/p>\n Please note that in the case of widespread power outages students may have limited internet and\/or phone\u00a0access. If this is the case you may want to try some asynchronous options.<\/p>\n Asynchronous Communication<\/strong> Email is a\u00a0great way to keep in touch with your students. You may send emails to all of your students, groups of students, or individual students.<\/p>\n Some students could not come in [because of the weather], but class was never cancelled. For students who could not make the commute I gave alternate assignments via email. Use the Send Email<\/a> tool in myLesley to send messages to your students without ever leaving the course.<\/p>\n Looking to have a more in-depth conversation? The myLesley Discussion Board<\/a> allows you\u00a0to replace or enhance\u00a0classroom discussions in a digital format. Discussions can serve as an online meeting place, a place\u00a0for collaboration, or a way to demonstrate the understanding or application of course material.<\/p>\n I assigned students a reading response in the course discussion board.\u00a0 They were responsible for exploring a movement therapy concept in the theme of movement observation.\u00a0 After completing the readings I had them move through these themes on their own, look for visual images that reflected their experience and post these images into the discussion board.\u00a0 They had to post these images with a description of their body experience and how that shaped their understanding of the concept.\u00a0 They then had to respond to at least 2 other peer comments. Looking for more ideas? Visit Planning for Instructional Continuity<\/a>\u00a0for guidelines\u00a0on creating an emergency plan for your course. And stay tuned for next week’s\u00a0Instructional Continuity blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The early months of 2015 saw record-breaking snowfall in the Boston area, causing wide-spread school closings.\u00a0What do you do when you need to cancel class or\u00a0the university is closed for inclement weather\u00a0or a flu outbreak? How do you ensure that … Continue reading
\nClass has been cancelled but\u00a0you and your students are still available to\u00a0meet, albeit remotely. The solution? How about a\u00a0conference call? You can use a free conference call number (such as freeconferencecall.com<\/a>) to connect with all of your students at once.<\/p>\n
\nBusiness Management and Communication<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\nInstead of meeting in real time, you may choose to hold your conversations asynchronously.\u00a0Unlike a synchronous tool, asynchronous activities take place when it is convenient for each person. Some ideas for asynchronous communication\u00a0include email and online discussions.<\/p>\n
\nLynette Cassel
\nExpressive Therapies GSAS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nValerie Blanc
\nExpressive Therapies GSAS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n