Teaching Remotely: A Practical Guide

For the past three months, the COVID-19 crisis has caused massive disruptions in every corner of society. Schools have been heavily impacted, some closing for the year and others transitioning to emergency remote learning. Teaching Remotely: A Practical Guide will provide educators with best practices, resources and strategies to set their remote learning classroom up for success. During this course, educators will learn to define remote learning, establish norms, incorporate SEL practices, maintain connections with students and their families, select digital content, provide feedback and assessment, and get plenty of opportunities to brainstorm and share with colleagues. There will also be a specific focus throughout the course on supporting students with limited connectivity and for students with learning differences and other unique needs. These strategies will be focused beyond the COVID-19 crisis but also will support remote learning whenever it is needed. At the end of the course, participants will develop an action plan for their remote learning classrooms.

Course Objectives

Define Remote Learning: This unit will define what remote learning is and is not, how it is different from traditional “distance learning”, and review the Instructional Design Principles for Remote Learning.
Establish Norms for Remote Learning: In this unit, participants will learn how to set up classroom procedures in a remote learning context, including sending and receiving content, maintaining connections with students.
Bring SEL to Remote Learning: Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) focuses on helping learners understand and manage emotions, set goals, set and achieve goals, show empathy for others, maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions. In this unit, participants will learn how to bring SEL practices to their remote learning classrooms and how to identify and address the social and emotional needs of students.
Maintain Connections with Students and Families: In the time of COVID-19, many families and students are struggling with daily realities including managing working from home while teaching students, having to go to work while students have to remain home, food insecurity, family illness or loss of income. This unit will cover strategies to support and maintain connections with families in uncertain times.
Select Digital Content: With all of the resources available on the internet, selecting high-quality, appropriate content for all students can be a challenge. This unit will support locating, identifying and vetting content to pick the best resources for your remote learning classroom.
Support Populations with Special Needs: This unit will address and provide strategies to support students with disabilities, learning differences, English Language Learners and other students with unique academic and social-emotional needs.
Provide Feedback and Assessment: This unit will dive deep into providing high-quality feedback to students remotely through a variety of media. Participants will also dig in to how to assess student learning and adapt instruction in new ways.