General Resources

There are thousands of resources out there about virtual/blended/flexed instruction. Here a few that we found useful. Please note that we've also included links to many of the workshops that have taken place at W&L!

• 7 Guidelines for Effective Teaching Online
  This article is from a few years back and asks four scholars who've authored books about online instruction for their top tips. It's a quick and informative read, offering some ideas that might also apply to face-to-face instruction. 
  
• A Broad Range of Materials
  Assembled by the Great Lakes College Association/Global Liberal Arts Alliance, this link covers everything from course design to assessment and assignment design to syllabus planning to using Zoom. Feeling like a beginner (and all of us do, sometimes)? This might be the place to start. 
  
• Creating Experiential Courses in a Virtual Environment, Part 1
  This site covers fields in every discipline, and gives examples of how research can be crowdsourced online.
• Creating Experiential Courses in a Virtual Environment, Part 2
  This site states explicitly that it's for the humanities, but the ideas here-visualizing complex subjects, curation, question roulette, learning through teaching, etc.-are powerful learning tools in all fields. I would strongly encourage faculty to give the practices here some careful consideration, when they have the time.
• Five Low-Tech, Time-Saving Ways to Teach Online During COVID-19
  A short article by Flower Darby. 
  
• Finding and Using Open Sources
  This resource, from Emily Cook, explores ways to ensure that our students have access to the materials they need when taking our courses. 
  
• How to Recover the Joy of Teaching After an Online Pivot
  This piece by Flower Darby in many ways is applicable to online instruction in every situation.
• Online Pedagogies Repository
  Created by the University of Central Florida, this repository organizes resources by Content, Interaction, and Assessment. 
  
• Online Teaching Toolkit
  This site, developed by the Association of College and University Educators, gives useful advice and resources on setting up your course, developing a sense of community, and communicating effectively.
  
• The Pandemic Pedagogy Handbook
  A UK Historical Society provides tips on inclusion, community-building, lecturing, providing feedback, and much much more. Applicable to a variety of classes. 
  
• Seven Questions for a Pandemic (Or Any Other Time)
  Mathematician Francis Su's brilliant essay. A must-read, seriously, for any field. 
  
• Small Teaching Online
  Flower Darby's online workshop entitled "Small Teaching Online: Practical Strategies to Enhance Learning in Online Environments". In this session, she covers eight tips-most of them fairly easily implemented-for deepening student learning. If you can spare the hour or so, it's worth a look. 
  
• Spring Term Course Design Workshops at W&L
  Four videos and related powerpoint from our pre-Spring Term workshop on how to put together an experiential course. Particular topics include: creating effective course goals, structuring our courses, building community, and managing the course to maintain our sanity.
• Student Perspectives on What Makes Virtual Instruction Work
  This short article is invaluable in helping guide our work in the virtual classroom.