Preparing for January 2021W2 Term

Educational Technology Support (ETS) assists all Faculty of Education instructors (including tenure stream faculty, sessional faculty, and lecturers) with the learning design and technology needs for their courses.

Special ETS drop-in sessions

ETS is offering the following online drop-in sessions for teaching faculty:

  • Wednesday January 5, 12:00pm-2:00pm
  • Thursday January 6, 10:00am-12:00pm

Please check our Workshops and Events page for registration and link to the sessions.

ETS hours and Contact Information

Our office will be closed between December 25th 2021 and January 3rd 2022. We will be back on January 4th 2022.

Important Steps

  1. Populate your Canvas course:
  2. Prepare your readings in Library Online Course Reserves.
  3. Update relevant course dates using Canvas Calendar. The default start date for 2021W2 courses in Canvas is January 10th, so you will need to review these and make necessary changes.
  4. Publish your course so students can access it.

Overview of two key tools for online teaching

Canvas

Canvas course shells have been created for all courses. Students are automatically enrolled into the course shell as soon as they register. To access the Canvas shell for your course, please go to canvas.ubc.ca and use your CWL to login. ETS can help with the next steps, such as copying any previous Canvas content or preparing the basic structure of the shell (publishing the syllabus, enabling access to reading material, and so on).

Welcoming your students to an online course

For some instructors, teaching and learning online may be new. In online instructional contexts, as in all instructional contexts, staying connected and working in a supportive environment is critical for student success and well-being. Welcome your students in an engaging way and create a supportive community of learners. ETS Learning Designers have prepared examples of ice-breaking activities (found below under “References and Resources”) that you can use to help your students get to know each other and to feel safe and welcomed in an online space.

Zoom

In addition to Canvas, for synchronous web conferencing, AV is provisioning Zoom accounts. If you do not have a Zoom account, you can send a message to av.helpdesk@ubc.ca to get one. You will need your UBC email account in the form of firstname.lastname@ubc.ca. If you don’t have it, please contact your Department administrator for help.

Zoom is an excellent way to connect with students, offer overviews of key concepts, and engage in class discussions. Based on feedback from Faculty of Education students in 2020-21, we recommend the following:

  • Run Zoom conference sessions only within the instructional hours for the course published in the UBC Calendar
  • Keep Zoom sessions shorter than published class times and always allow ample time for students to transition to subsequent classes
  • Limit the use of breakout rooms and ensure breakout room tasks are clearly described
  • Limit lecturing via Zoom

References and Resources

Back to top