Online Hybrid (OH): Online Hybrid blends asynchronous and synchronous online formats, with 50% of the learning activities designated as asynchronous online, and the other 50% synchronous online. Synchronous videoconference meetings are scheduled and occur using tools like Zoom. Dates and times for synchronous meetings must be visible to students when registering for the course.

This format combines asynchronous and synchronous.

So what does synchronous and asynchronous mean? Synchronous events are live, versus asynchronous events which are prerecorded.

This entirely online course modality blends on-demand online learning and live remote class sessions. The main features of Online Hybrid are:

• Meeting dates and times in Peoplesoft / Campus Connect
• Pre-recorded lecture content
• Live scheduled interaction with students (via Zoom)
• Weekly deadlines
• Optional synchronous meetups recommended to build presence

Students who enjoy online learning but want regular live interaction with faculty and peers.

The live scheduled interaction with students should not be pure lecture - that would be a waste of time for you and your students. Ideally, 80% of the time spent during a weekly Zoom meeting should be the students talking, and 20 % of the time spent with the professor talking. These synchronous sessions are an opportunity for students to ask questions, collaborate in small groups, or to participate in a seminar.

• These synchronous Zoom sessions should be no more than 90 minutes but can be shorter.
• Faculty can tell students to take a break and come back later (within the 90-minute duration).
• Group work is possible via Zoom Breakout rooms.
• The meeting times in Campus Connect are fixed - the cannot be changed by faculty.
• For example, a traditional in-class course might meet each week for three hours Monday nights from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The equivalent Online Hybrid course would meet in Zoom from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. each Monday.

An Online Hybrid course is an Online Asynchronous course with weekly meetings of up to 90 minutes. The weekly meetings are for live interaction between students and their professor.

The Center for Teaching and Learning has created a D2L template that may be helpful for faculty who have not taught online before. If you would like this template copied to your D2L courses:

1. Go to the D2L Request Forms.
2. Click on "Copy Course Content."
3. In the “If your course is not available in the dropdown, type as much course information as you can recall in the box below” textbox, type “CTL Master Template.”
4. Select the course you want to Copy Into.
5. Click on “Submit."
6. On the next page, verify that the information you have provided is correct, and then click on “Submit."

The template reiterates appropriate online design. Creating a modular course, in which all weekly materials are found in that module, rather than disparate parts of the course.

At the start of each weekly module provide an introduction. In the introduction, explain what will be covered that week (and why it is important). Then share the weekly deliverables, Explain when and how these should be submitted (and you can hyperlink to the appropriate submissions folders or discussion boards as you do this). Then share the content and exercises. To help your students allocate time, indicate how long these activities should take.

It is good practice to separate your syllabus and schedule into two webpages in D2L. Your syllabus will be viewed infrequently - typically at the beginning and end of your course. However, the schedule will be something that students will frequently refer to.

The template contains a structured syllabus that can be adapted to faculty needs.

Avoid placing these documents (and others) as PDFs. PDFs are difficult to read on mobile devices. Our hope is that an online course is more than a collection of documents. Creating pages inside D2L allows you to link to resources within your course - you cannot do this with Word documents or PDFs.

Instead, all content within an online course should be HTML. HTML is easy & quick to update, the text reformats is the user needs to change font size. HTML works on all devices, and more importantly works with screenreaders.

The template has a biography page. Editing this page with your information and a photograph will help your students have a better understand of who you are, and your teaching philosophy.

You may want to rethink deadlines. There is little value in scheduling a deadline just before midnight, unless you are planning to grade at midnight. Instead, schedule your assignment deadlines for the time you intend to grade. That way you are ready to respond to last-minute questions as they arrive from your students, and you provide your students with more time to work on those assignments.

The D2L template for Business Faculty (The Driehaus Online Starter Pack) can help in creating presence. The homepage is a place that you can share news. You can also add Youtube videos and links to resources. We recommend that you post the same email notifications you send to your students on your D2L homepage as well. If students miss your email messages, they will see the messages when they visit your D2L course.

In some asynchronous courses you may find yourself sending multiple emails to your students each week. Without regular reminders, your students may procrastinate.

Using the discussion boards will help provide additional reasons for your students to frequent your online course, particularly if you add discussion boards for fun topics or Q&A. Setting reminders to check the discussion board regularly is good practice.

To make the job of teaching a little more efficient, we suggest that students post questions to the discussion board rather than emailing the professor (unless the question is personal or embarrassing). This results in fewer duplicate questions asking about deadlines or clarifications, but also means that students who might be reticent in reaching out can take advantage of seeing what others are asking.

If you are using a textbook, we highly recommend that you import the publishers test bank into your course. Using these questions as weekly quizzes can add significant value to your course.

1. Log into your course in D2L.
2. Click on “Course Administration” then “Import/Export/Copy Components.”
3. Select “Import Components” and click on “Start.”
4. Click and drag your file into the Upload area.
5. Click “Import All Components.” The import will process and the bank will now appear in the Question Library.

Students are particularly appreciative of short but instructive videos in your course. You can take advantage of LinkedIn Learning to add video assets to your course.

But students most appreciate well-designed videos from their instructor. With an educational video you don’t need to be on camera all the time. Richard E. Mayer’s research suggests that a constant presence on camera can be a distraction to the student, so only include yourself if your nonverbal communication and presence truly adds value. Or you can record a weekly introductory video with you on screen, but remove your webcam video from the instructional videos that you create. Videos explaining homework and providing feedback are very helpful to students.

In the College of Business, many courses ends with assessments. For the College of Business we recommend these four options:

1. Takehome: Give a week for students to upload to D2L Submissions.
2. D2L Quiz: Timed exam, available for a week.
• Respondus Monitor is an option for to secure the quiz.
3. Presentation: Recorded in Panopto, Voicethread.
• If students have another option that works, let them use that.
4. Project: Upload to D2L Submissions.

The proctoring tool we use now is Integrity Advocate. Integrity Advocate has a tight integration with D2L and does not require any downloads to work. It is a fully proctored tool that uses a combination of AI and human screening to maintain the integrity of the exam, however it’s important to note that it does not actively prevent students from committing violations, but it does record when this happens and makes it available to the instructor for review.
 
There is no cost to students or the College of Business for this service

Faculty can request Integrity Advocate be set up for their online exams here.

If you need technical help during the quarter, please email CTL@depaul.edu.

If your students have technical issues, please direct them to the Helpdesk at helpdesk.depaul.edu

Training, documentation and resources can all be found online at go.depaul.edu/remote-teaching