Back to School Guide
This article features resources to help you prepare for a new quarter of teaching in hybrid and online formats. The strategies highlighted here have been gathered through events, interviews, workshops, and panels led by instructors at the Graduate School of Education. More strategies and resources can be found on the GSE IT Teaching Resources website.
About GSE Teaching Resources
GSE's Teaching Resources works with the Teaching Commons website to offer resources for instructors that are simple, flexible, and research-based on the topics of learning, education, and pedagogy. GSE IT supports and complements these goals by capturing promising practices that can then be shared and distributed throughout the Stanford community.
GSE Teaching Resources also feature:
- FAQs, guides, and walkthroughs on new tools or programs currently being used
- research and strategies on how to shift to remote learning or adapt to post-pandemic conditions.
Teaching Resources incorporates student voices, podcast recordings, and articles that cover the overall impacts of COVID-19 on teaching and learning.
How can I set up my course for success?
Create structured classrooms with set expectations and norms at the beginning of the quarter and incorporate multiple modalities to support synchronous and asynchronous learning and promote student engagement throughout the quarter.
Course structures
Here are some useful resources, including templates, strategies for course planning, and information on building your Canvas course during the transition from remote to in-person learning.
- Teaching with Canvas overview
- Course planning and design
- Canvas template explainer
- Lunch-n-Learn: What's Worth Keeping?
Engagement
Students learn best when they are engaged, enabling deeper processing and better retention. The following resources offer suggestions for learning activities that actively engage students with course material and a wide range of technology.
- Building community and setting norms during the first day of class
- College-level community and relationship-building activities
- Classes on your feet
- How to create hands-on and experiential activities
How can my course feel more interactive?
These resources offer examples of how to create more interactive classrooms and spaces that will keep students interested, motivated, and focused.
Chat
These chat tools are useful for student-to-student conversations or to connect with others inside and outside of the classroom.
Live polling
These tools can be used to collect in-class feedback, facilitate icebreakers, or frame student activities.
Collaborative authoring
These tools and activities can support both synchronous and asynchronous learning.
- How to use Google Jamboard to build ideas visually
- How to use MURAL, a digital collaboration space
- How to utilize Padlet, a customizable bulletin board
Multimedia
Use different modalities and video media, like Zoom and Panopto, to increase student engagement.
How can I create intentional connections?
These resources showcase ways instructors can support intentional connections in the classroom, such as providing opportunities for students to connect with their cohort and creating safe spaces within the class for students to voice opinions and share ideas.
Discussion techniques
Instructors can build community by incorporating varied learning activities and discussion techniques.
Podcasts
Create podcasting and audio recording resources to share with students or your teaching team. By enabling students to create their own media, the instructor can help students share their experiences with the class.
Gather student feedback
Use wellness check-ins and exit tickets to gauge how students are doing in class and collect feedback on individual sessions or on the course overall.
- How to distribute weekly exit tickets to check-in on students
- How to use anonymous surveys to get student feedback
Foster student connections
Ways to foster student interaction and create a safe space for students to give feedback and get to know each other.
For the full downloadable version of this page, please check out the Back to School Guide.