FAQ: Teaching with FlexSync

• Encourage your students to use the resources at the University's Keep Learning website.
• Student Technology Help & Support:
  • IT Help & Support
  • Laptop & equipment checkout from Memorial Library
• Some students might only have a smart phone to access your course materials:
  • You might use the mobile responsive templates in D2L Brightspace to share content.
  • Add due dates to D2L Brightspace assignments, discussions, quizzes. This will notify students if they are using the mobile app and/or subscribe to notifications. See the tutorial playlist on our Teaching with D2L Brightspace webpage for a quick how to.
  • Perhaps skip video (when possible) or allow students to call in during live Zoom online meetings so even those with a low speed internet connection can participate.
  • It might be helpful to allow flexibility in due dates and format of assignments when possible, e.g. text, audio and/or video submissions
• Consider the suggestions offered by faculty and experts across the MinnState system on Equity Minded Principles for Alternative Instruction.

There a many options available for Student Technology Help & Support:

• IT Help & Support - Submit a ticket, chat with a technician, explore support articles, and more
• Laptop & equipment checkout from Memorial Library
• Student Technology Tools and Resources for Online Learning

The list below may assist you with the transition from face-to-face to online.

You don't need to attempt all of these options, use tools and methods that work for you, your students, and support the learning goals of the course.

Communication

CONTENT

Assessment

Faculty and students should be prepared to discuss accommodation needs. The staff in Accessibility Resources at Minnesota State Mankato are available to answer questions about implementing accommodations. If you need assistance in creating accessible materials for your class (documents, videos, etc.), contact IT Solutions. Some helpful tips to guide you in this process include:

• Text Contrast:
  Use black text on a white background to ensure that the text stands out on documents and the course page.

• Text Styles: 
  Color alone will not help denote differences in emphasis and content meaning. Consider text styles to assist this denotation.

• Heading Styles:
  Use built-in heading styles to help students identify content organization.

• List Styles: 
  Use the built-in bullet or number styles for lists. Avoid creating your own bullet images/icons.

D2L Brightspace has mobile responsibe and accessible templates: Learn how to use them in your course.

• Alternative Text: 
  Provide a brief text description to serve as an alternative for images, graphs, and charts that answers the question: Why is this image important? What is this image?

• Closed Captioning: 
  Captioning your videos provides greater student comprehension of the material covered and provides access to media for individuals with hearing impairments in compliance with federal regulations.
  • As you create video content for virtual teaching, we recommend that you use Kaltura MediaSpace for captioning.
  • You may also reach out to Accessibility Resources to provide real-time captioning for Zoom. 

• Link Text: 
  Use descriptive titles for text, titles, and headers when embedding links.
• Tables: 
  Use simple tables when possible, with column and row headers.

We recommend utilizing the Quizzes tool of D2L for all exams and offering them asynchronously.

Share Student Technology Tools and Resources for Online Learning with your students and put technology requirements in your syllabus.

Another strategy you might consider is to survey your students.

Survey Your Students

We recommend that faculty survey their students about their access to technology and to do your best to design courses that work within students' technology limitations.

If you want a sample survey, Lauren Cagel at the University of Kentucky has shared her's online.

Students can access various specialized software through MavAPPS.

MavLABS provides students a way to log in and access specialized campus laboratory computers at a distance.

We want to help you with:

1. Live-streaming (e.g. lab or in-classroom demos)
2. Lecture capture (or use MediaSpace for informal capture)
3. Campus tours, virtual presentations, digital events and more! 

We specialize in broadcast, live-streaming and have a full, professional video recording team as well as a green screen studio that is available for use during this time.

When not helping with online course content, we are the team behind the camera at most Maverick sporting events, we live stream student government meetings, events and manage the Charter Maverick TV channel. View samples of our past work are available on our YouTube channel.

Interested in learning more or want to schedule a time with the video team? Contact Beth Bjorklund with IT Solutions to get started. We are committed to a quick response and turnaround time so you can keep providing the best quality teaching and learning experience for all.

Faculty are to communicate regularly with students and develop an attendance plan that may include students self-selecting days or groups for when to be on campus and when to attend virtually.

Consider using Self-Enrollment with Capacity Groups in D2L Brightsapce to help manage this.

The Microsoft OneDrive app on mobile devices and tablets allows students to create PDF files that are uploaded directly to their campus OneDrive files. They can then upload those files directly from OneDrive into D2L Brightspace Assignments, Discussions.

These other apps also allow students to scan their work into searchable PDF files: Adobe Scan and Microsoft Lens

Review the Online Exam Security materials for some tips on this.