During the Spring Quarter of 2020, all College of Business classes have been taught asynchronously. This means

Prerecorded content. Nothing live. Nothing at a set time.
If you do Zoom (which might fail):
  • Optional to students. Like exam review, or fun meetup.
  • Recorded.
  • Short. At a convenient time.

Where To Go

Backups

Multiple backups are always recommended. The Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB should cost about $70 on Amazon, and you can backup to the Cloud via Box and OneDrive.

Email

Using your DePaul email account (rather than a third-party account) will improve delivery and reduce spam.

However to keep your inbox more manageable, we recommend asking your students to use D2L discussion boards as the place to ask course-related questions.

We also highly 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.

Improving Your Internet Connectivity

If you are intending to use Zoom, please note that Zoom requires at a minimum 1mbps upload and download speeds. For good performance you will need 5mbps upload and download.

Those of you with using a satellite connection or ADSL (Asymmetric DSL) will see that your downloads are considerably faster than your uploads. This will impact your experience of Zoom (as well as anything that involves uploading material to the Web).

If you are using a cellular connection for Zoom, expect about 800MB data consumed per hour.

We highly advise using a wired ethernet connection when videoconferencing or uploading large files to D2L. Typically, your home modem will have one or more ethernet ports that you can use to connect to your home computer.

Teaching Online For The First time

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Teaching online for the first time can be a little intimidating. Luckily, the university has plenty of resources to help you.

We have 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 Spring courses:

  • Go to D2L Request Forms.
  • Click on "Copy Course Content."
  • 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 “Driehaus Online Starter Pack.”
  • Select the course you want to Copy Into.
  • Click on “Submit."
  • On the next page, verify that the information you have provided is correct, and then click on “Submit."

The "Driehaus Online Starter Pack” contains:

  • Welcome message to students.
  • Resources for instructors.
  • Panopto instructions for instructors.
  • Online student resources (academic, technology, software, library, etc.).
  • Example syllabus.
  • Example schedule.
  • Discussion board introductions and Q&A.

If you just want to look at the course, I can add you as an “Observer.” To add you I would need via email:

  1. Your name.
  2. Your EmpID (the seven-digit number on your DePaul ID card).

There are multiple ways that you can get training on how to use D2L effectively:

  • D2L Essentials: CTL offers a self-paced online workshop that covers the basics of D2L. For more information and to register, please visit here.
  • Individual Appointments: You can meet virtually with a FITS consultant who will work with you one-on-one. You can schedule here.
  • D2L Guides: The Teaching Commons has extensive videos and teaching guides that you can explore here.

Video

You will probably want to add video to your D2L course. Before creating something from scratch there are some options to consider:

  • Do my students need this as video? It could be that written text or directing your students to a chapter of the textbook is sufficient.
  • Does this topic exist as a video on LinkedIn Learning? All faculty, students, and staff have access to LinkedIn Learning. The videos there are professionally made, and might be sufficient to the task.
  • Does this topic exist as a video elsewhere? Publisher’s materials, YouTube, or Creative Commons may have what you need.
  • Does a colleague have recorded content? It could be one of your colleagues has content that they are willing to share, or to combine course sections.

You have several options for recording content:

Panopto. Free and university supported.

  • Instructions here.
    • In addition, I have two short videos that show you how to record a simple PowerPoint presentation in Panopto and then how to embed this in D2L here.
  • Webinars here.
    • Note: We have just released a beta Panopto recorder for the Chrome browser. This allows you to record on Chromebooks and on devices that you cannot install the Panopto Recorder on. To access:
      • Click on “Edit Course” in your D2L course and select “Panopto.”
      • Click on “Panopto Capture
      • Note: This is a beta software, and we are working on documentation.

VoiceThread. Free, and university supported


Zoom. Free, but use with caution.

We are already seeing significant delays in the processing of recordings.


QuickTime. Free, but only on macOS.

  • Instructions here.
    • In addition, I have very basic instructions on how to record with QuickTime here.

iOS Screen Recording. Free, but only on iOS (iPads and iPhones).


Some faculty may have an existing recording option that they are comfortable with. You do not need to learn a new tool. However, you will want to upload your video into D2L via Panopto for security and improved quality of service. This is considerably better than using services like YouTube, which may violate FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). Instructions on how to add Panopto to your course and embed videos can be found here.