Teaching Remotely

The Center for Faculty Excellence is proud to support SMHS faculty in the transition to online and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.  If you would like a personalized consultation regarding your course or session, please contact the CFE to set up an appointment.

In addition, GW Libraries and Academic Innovation has a helpful website with resources for Virtual Teaching. 

Below are some resources and guidelines for those developing and supporting online learning.

Designing your class or session

Steps for faculty

1. For those teaching in a block or clerkship, contact your block or clerkship director to determine what time and options are available – they may have suggestions for the best way to move forward to deliver your content to the students.
2. Decide how you want to provide your content to the students.
   • Review this Flowchart - Moving your content online
   • Refer to options below for specific tools/techniques
3. Confirm with block/clerkship directors (and OME)
4. Locate and/or create any instructional materials that you need to distribute to students.
5. Once your materials (video, readings, assignments, etc) are ready, send them to OME to be posted for student access. 
6. Follow up on the Blackboard site to make sure that you are available for student questions and concerns, since they weren't able to meet with you in person.  Block directors and OME will be able to provide access to Blackboard discussions if you do not know how to do so. 

Asynchronous Teaching

Asynchronous Teaching is any of the activities that students can do on their own time/at their own pace. These activities can include reading content/articles, watching videos, completing formative assessments, interacting in online discussions, and many more.  Asynchronous activities can still have deadlines but are not necessarily completed at the same time other classmates are active.  The sections below detail different methods and tools for creating asynchronous activities and content.

Record lectures/videos to post online

1. Tips for recording online videos.
2. Voice-over-PowerPoint
   1. Instructions with Video from Microsoft (all versions)
   2. PDF Instructions on IMPACT Website (under Online Presentations and Videos)
   3. Saving your presentation as a video
   4. Posting to Blackboard
      • Load directly into Blackboard – scroll to “Add audio and media files in the editor” (not recommended for large files)
      • Load into YouTube and then embed on Blackboard site

Note: If you are teaching in a pre-clinical block, please contact OME to find out how to send your video file to them for posting.  Instructors teaching in pre-clinical blocks do not have access to upload files or videos directly in Blackboard.

3. Panopto

Panopto is an online video platform that allows users to easily create, edit, and add quizzes to video content.  You can simultaneously record from both a webcam and your screen.

• Installation/setup

Which Panopto do I use?

In order to record a video, you will need to install the Panopto Recorder application.  The application can be found in Software Center on SMHS computers.  For other computers, you can access the download from Panopto Online.  You will be prompted to login – make sure to select the “Blackboard” dropdown option and use your GW NetId and password.

Once you are logged in, click on the download Panopto icon in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

• Recording

How to Record a Video on Panopto

Note: if you are recording a session for a Block or Clerkship, contact the director or OME to identify what folder you should save the video into.

• Editing your Panopto Video

The Panopto editor allows you to trim the beginning, end, or sections in the middle of your recording. 

How to Trim a Video

• Sharing

If you record your video into the folder for a course, the video will be automatically shared with the users (students, faculty) of that course.  For pre-clinical courses, if you record into the folder designated by OME, the OME staff will be able to move that video into the appropriate Blackboard course to give students access.

Interactivity

1. Multiple Choice Questions
   • Adding Quiz Questions in Panopto
   • Camtasia – Camtasia is a paid product that allows you to add interactivity (questions, zooming, annotation) to a recorded video.  For more information, contact the CFE.
2. Blackboard quizzes
   • Blackboard quizzes can be created and distributed to students.  Quizzes can be graded or ungraded, and can have a variety of question types (Multiple Choice, Fill in the blank, Short answer, Essay, etc).
   • Blackboard – Create Tests and Surveys
3. Discussions

• Blackboard has a Discussion feature that allows you and your students to ask and respond to questions.  How to Setup a Blackboard Discussion
• For more information, see Blackboard Discussions.

Previously Recorded Sessions

If you would like to reuse a session that was recorded last year on the same topic, please contact OME with as much of the following information as possible about the previous year’s session: 

• Class Name
• Session Name
• Faculty Name
• Date of recording (or your best guess)
• Room in which session was recorded

Also, please provide detailed instructions about what students should do with the lecture:

• Is all of the content relevant?
• Should they focus on a specific section?
• Is there additional content that you will provide to supplement this recording?

Since the recording was not directed at this audience, it is likely that you will need to provide some additional detail about the recording to help the students focus on key content.  You can also edit the recording to include quiz questions (this is especially helpful if the recording includes Poll Everywhere – it allows this year’s students to interact in a similar way).

Tool Options to Record Your Lecture

Use this table to choose the appropriate tool for your lecture:

Note: if you have a tool that you prefer to use, and are comfortable using (e.g. Captivate, Quicktime), you are welcome to continue to use that tool and provide OME with the output video.  This table is intended to help those who do not know which tool to choose

Synchronous (“Live”) Sessions

If you prefer to deliver your lecture "live" rather than pre-recording it, you can set up a session in Blackboard Collaborate or Webex so that students can log in to attend real-time or can view the recording of the session later. (Be sure to set the session to record). In this environment, you can share slides, share your screen, use a whiteboard, and allow students to ask questions all while part of the synchronous session.

Tools available and supported by GW and SMHS: 

1. Blackboard Collaborate
2. Webex
3. Zoom

For information on each of these tools, and how to conduct a Live Synchronous Session, please see the Web Conferencing Tools page.