Discipline-specific strategies and resources

Things to keep in mind

The process to building a quality course, remote, blended or fully online, remains the same. However, there may be discipline-specific needs depending on your course. This section provides examples and advice from the university community.

Welcome to my Online Classroom

The TLSS launched a series of activities to showcase faculty member initiatives in transitioning courses into distance/online modalities. Browse examples provided by your peers from the University community as they welcome you into their online courses.

Sharing an Example of Asynchronous Online Class

Aliaa Dakroury Ph.D.
Faculty of Human Sciences, Saint-Paul University
August 24, 2020

In this webinar, Aliaa discussed teaching strategies used in an asynchronous online course to engage students and maintain a strong online instructor presence – without the use of a web conferencing technology (such as Adobe Connect, Zoom or MS Teams). Through examples, participants left with ideas of asynchronous activities to plan, or resources to develop in advance to foster a positive online learning experience for their students.

Additional Document

Teaching Highly Participatory Courses Using Adobe Connect

Paul Saurette Ph.D.
School of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences
August 10, 2020

In this webinar, Paul discussed his experience using Adobe Connect to teach two (COVID-necessitated) synchronous distance-learning classes this spring (one lecture format, one seminar format). His main goal was to create as participatory an environment as possible in these classes, despite their virtual nature. As such, his discussion focused primarily on which tools and practices worked, and which didn’t work, to maximize student participation (particularly in a large lecture-style class).

Additional Documents

Synchronous Student Engagement Strategies

Alison Flynn Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences, Faculty of Science
July 16, 2020

In this webinar, Alison discussed synchronous student engagement strategies, and ways in which students may still participate in an asynchronous fashion. Participants had an opportunity to take part in the activities from a learner’s perspective and left with a set of tips (from Alison and colleagues) to design, set-up, facilitate, and wrap-up synchronous learning sessions.

Additional Documents

This section is in progress.

The TLSS is reaching out to Faculties for content to include in this section. Do you have discipline-specific resources to share? Please contact Hubert Lalande by email at hlalande@uOttawa.ca.

Faculty of Arts

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

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Arts Café – Resources and Support for Digital Learning

The Arts Café is a source of information on digital learning for the Faculty of Arts, as well as an open forum for instructors and teaching assistants, helping them transition to remote teaching.

Faculty of Arts teaching staff are automatically granted access to the Arts Café via MS Teams. You can find it as one of your “Teams”.

For further information about the Arts Café, please send us an email to artscafe@uottawa.ca

Faculty Website

Faculty of Education

The Faculty of Education offers programs fully online, blended and at a distance. The faculty recently formed a working group on ‘Quality in online learning’ and works with an educational specialist from the TLSS to develop specialized training and resources for the profs.

Faculty Website

Faculty of Engineering

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

 

Faculty Website

Faculty of Health Sciences

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

 

Faculty Website

Faculty of Law - Civil Law Section

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at  and we will post as this section expands.

Faculty Website

Here are resources developed by members of the faculty:

  • FMB’s MS Teams ‘How To’ This is an unofficial documentation on meeting capabilities prepared by Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau, Associate Professor, Common Law Section.
  • Online instruction guidance document by Craig Forcese from the Faculty of Law at uOttawa.

Faculty of Law - Common Law Section

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at  and we will post as this section expands.

Faculty Website

Here are resources developed by members of the faculty:

  • FMB’s MS Teams ‘How To’ This is an unofficial documentation on meeting capabilities prepared by Dr. Florian Martin-Bariteau, Associate Professor, Common Law Section.
  • Online instruction guidance document by Craig Forcese from the Faculty of Law at uOttawa.

Faculty of Medicine

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

 

Faculty Website

Faculty of Science

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

Faculty Website

Here are resources developed by members of the faculty:

Faculty of Social Sciences

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

Faculty Website

Here are resources developed by members of the faculty:

Telfer School of Management

There are many tools available on Virtual campus (Brightspace) to develop a supportive learning experience for students. If you have other suggestions and ideas for this section to share please contact us at saea-tlss@uottawa.ca.

 

Faculty Website

Here are resources developed by members of the faculty:  

Virtual Labs: English and French Resources

List of links and descriptions of numerous labs and virtual lab resources that might be of interest to you as you continue to instruct remotely. The lists (French and English) are by no means exhaustive but thought they might be of some help as you think about trying to conduct labs at a distance. We have identified one Virtual Lab platform that is free and can be accessed in many languages - including French. You will find a brief description and a link to the resource at the top of the attached list.

Please let us know if there are resources on this list - or elsewhere - that would be beneficial for you and your students to have access to saea-tlss@uOttawa.ca.

Strategies for teaching online

Respond to students’ postings directly but try to provide all students with questions and comments in order to encourage everyone to participate.

Encourage students to respond to comments posted by their classmates. Explain how worthwhile it is to build on each other’s learning.

Emphasize the importance of submitting assignments.

Encourage students to collaborate with each other by creating collaboration opportunities: forum, blog, pair work, group work etc.

Vary the way you present material/course content in order to correspond to a greater number of learner modalities.

Present activities and projects where students will be able to demonstrate their learning creatively.

Recognizing students can express understanding of essential course content in multiple ways, consider offering students a choice concerning the type of assignment they can hand in: choice of subject, format: blog, wiki, video, essay etc.

Encourage reflective activities, such as a journal.

Maintain online presence through a course intro video, regular announcements, participate in the discussion forum, have a course FAQ – style discussion for common questions,

[Excerpt from: Fully online and Blended Course: A Guide for Professors, TLSS (2019)]

Online Teaching Assistants

Clarify their role and the level of interactivity they should have your students

Like the course instructor, TAs should maintain an online presence

TA can encourage online participation

If you are using online discussion forums, your TAs can monitor the discussions, give feedback to you on how the course is going.

You may ask a TA to grade assignments or exams – using an evaluation rubric with clear evaluation criteria is recommended

TAs are welcome to participate in the training sessions and webinars offered by TLSS.

Check out this guide to prepare teaching assistants for remote, online or blended courses.

[Excerpt from: Fully online and Blended Course: A Guide for Teaching Assistants, TLSS (2015]

Library Services and Resources

The Library is available to support faculty and students with digital collections, virtual services and more.

Available Services

Find the most up-to-date information on the Library’s collections and services here.

See updates

Open Educational Resources

Consider using OER in your course for easier, more affordable access.

Learn More

Digital Course Reserve Service

Let the Course Reserve team locate digital content for your courses!

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Academic Integrity

Student with headphone and a computer working online

Expectations of academic integrity remain the same in face-to-face class environments, remote teaching and online learning (Regulation 14 – Academic Fraud). Students are responsible for the quality of their work, for properly citing references, and respecting the intellectual community. What can you do to encourage a culture of academic integrity in your course?

  • Talk to your students and share your expectations about assignments, assessments and course deadlines; use grading rubrics
  • Consider using an ‘Honour pledge’ with your class
  • Be mindful of the circumstances and that some students may need more time to complete assignments Do you have other strategies that you would like to share? Contact us [email link ] and your suggestion may be posted.

Peer support: Community of Practice for Remote & Online Learning

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Special topics in remote or online learning:

  • Tools & Technology.
  • Large groups & first year classes.
  • Accessibility & Equality.
  • Strategies for engagement and interactivity.
  • Labs and Field courses.
  • Assessments & Exams Contact us at  for more information.