Overview#
Helpful Links#
2-Device Proctoring#
One of the most important aspects of what you will be doing as a remote instructor, is ensuring that all assessments are admininstered with a high degree of integrity.
This means all quizzes and exams need to be proctored using our 2-device proctoring system. Please see the remote proctoring section of this website for more details.
Focus Mode
Proctors should also use focus mode in their Proctoring Meetings, this way students cannot see each other during the meeting. This will not affect Gallery View Recordings.
Lecture Videos and Notes#
Each course has a set of pre-recorded lecture videos and accompanying note sheet outlines. You may use these resources for your own ßcourse. Here are a few ideas on how you might want to do this:
Assign the videos as the main lecture content for your students, and then use your live Zoom time as Guided Problem Sessions, lecture review, supplemental instruction, Q&A, etc.
Use them as a resource for you to structure your own lecture videos.
Post them as review videos to supplement your own lectures.
Notes: I tell my students that I strongly recommend they use these pdf files to take notes on, either with a tablet or printed out.
Videos: If you decide to produce your own lecture videos, I strongly recommend that you pre-record these using OBS. Even if you pre-record the videos, you should still host a live Zoom Meeting to handle more of the synchronous features of class: Q&A, etc.
Online Homework#
It is strongly recommended that you use an online homework system for your course.
There is an in-house option available to you called WeBWorK. The server for this plaform is managed by SENS here at UB, and is free for students. Additionally, there are custom WeBWorK sets and problems that specifically pair with each of the pre-recorded lecture videos. Please see the webwork section of this website for instructions on how to get started using this.
Helping Students#
Zoom: Using a portion of your daily Zoom Meeting for questions is a good opportunity to address any difficulties that multiple students may have. This also helps students get to know you and your face!
Discussion Boards: These are a good way for students to post pictures of their work in order to get help from you. These also help cut down on similar questions from multiple students. Most also support LaTeX. Students in lower level courses are usually hesitant about asking questions, so it might take some encouragement from you to get them using this.
UB Learns has a built-in discussion board feature. Unfortunately, this is not recommended.
Two recommended 3rd party options are Piazza and Campuswire
For my own courses, I personally manage an instance of Discourse at https://forum.bluetangent.org. If interested, I might be able to open this up for you to use in your class. (Let me know!)
Email: I have found the most efficient way to handle student questions by email, is to have them send me a picture of their work - which I annotate on my tablet and email back to them. I also encourage them to ask content related questions on the help forum or during the Zoom Meeting.
Collecting and Grading Papers#
There a few options for how you might want to collect and grade the quizzes and exams. (The homework will be graded automatically with the online homework system.) There is the default option of using UB Learns, but another option is Gradescope.
Gradescope#
In most cases, Gradescope is the recommended method for collecting, grading, and returning written asessments. There are two versions to consider:
Free Version - this has all the features we need if you will be acting as your own TA and Grader. The free version does not allow team grading.
Institutional Trial Version - this has all the features we need and allows team grading (meaning the instructor, TA, and grader all will be able to grade the assessments).
If you are going to use team grading, but do not have access to a trial version, you may need to discuss sharing your Gradescope login info with your team. While not recommended, this might be a quick workaround.
UB Learns#
The other option for collecting, grading, and returning written assessments is to use UB Learns. You will need to decide on your particular workflow but the one that has proved manageable for me is:
Create an assignment on UB Learns, where students will make their submissions.
Download all pdf submissions to my tablet.
Grade on my tablet, similar to traditional pen+paper
Upload graded papers to UB Learns using the bulk feedback option.
This method is not as smooth as using Gradescope, but is a viable option if you want to do team grading and do not want to share your login info for Gradescope.