Course Content and Delivery

Course Content & Delivery

  1. Web Conferencing
  2. Class Meetings, Group Work, Discussions & Office Hours
  3. Sharing Course Materials, Readings, and Lectures
  4. Assignments, Exams, and Grades
  5. Hands on Work, Lab Assignments
  6. Field Trips, Service Learning
  7. Zoom vs. Kaltura: How do I know what to use when teaching?

Course Content & Delivery


Web Conferencing

  • This can serve as a substitute for an in-person experience with your students. It’s important to keep in mind that successful web meetings require preparation by you and your students.
  • UMaine recommends using Zoom for web conferencing. Zoom training is available on a regular basis and you can register for training on Zoom here. Guides to share with your students are here.


Class Meetings, Group Work, Discussions & Office Hours

  • There are a number of tools that may be used to hold synchronous or asynchronous conversations with students when you are teaching online/remotely/hybrid/f2f.
  • Synchronous Conversations:
    • Zoom can be used for class meetings, discussions, group work and office hours. It is important to remember that time zones may become a factor when you are teaching students at a distance. Consider offering several options or polling the class to find times that work for most people.
    • Hangouts or Google Chats provide a way to connect in real time with an individual or with a group. Students who are part of the group but not online at the time of the discussion will be able to read the transcript the next time they log in to their maine.edu account.
  • Asynchronous Communications:
    • Announcements in Brightspace are an effective way to send information to the entire class at once. Students will receive these announcements in the LMS, and can also opt in to receive them via email or text message.
    • Discussion forums in Brightspace can be used for asynchronous communication between students. Depending on the bandwidth available, students can post a video response to the discussion forum as a way of sharing their perspective.
    • Google Drive documents, spreadsheets, and other items such as slides can be created and shared with a group of students. Tools for commenting, tracking changes, annotating and chatting are available within the documents and may be a good substitute for in person collaborations or group work.
    • Email can be used, of course, for communicating with individuals, groups, or with your entire class.


Sharing Course Materials, Readings, and Lectures

  • Course materials, readings or documents can be uploaded to Brightspace. Using an organizational structure that is connected to the way you have framed information in your syllabus can make finding information easier for your students.
  • We recommend that faculty link through the library whenever possible because of accessibility and copyright considerations.
  • Utilize the Library’s proxy server to ensure that students from off campus have direct access to licensed resources.
  • If you are not using Brightspace, readings or documents can be shared through Google Drive or as attachments to email. Again, link directly through the library.
  • Course lectures can be recorded using a web camera or screen sharing a powerpoint with Kaltura. These videos are easy to share online through Brightspace.
    • This same solution will work for student presentations, and information to share with your students about how to use Kaltura can be found here.
  • If you are using a textbook in your course, the publisher may provide resources for instruction that you have not used in your course. These resources may be worth investigating, though it is important to note that some access may require your students to pay a fee.
  • If you aren’t using a textbook in your course, you may want to investigate some of the open source material available in a subject area, and use links to chapters or segments as a temporary source of information


Assignments, Exams, and Grades

  • Depending on your needs, you may need to create a space for students to submit assignments, papers, or projects online.
  • The assessment tool set in Brightspace allows for multiple ways to create places for students to submit work. Faculty can evaluate the work and provide feedback and grades within Brightspace.
  • Google Drive can be used as a depository for student work, and the tools of Google Drive enable commenting and chat features that can be used as feedback or collaboration tools.
  • Student presentations can be recorded using a web camera or screen sharing a powerpoint with Kaltura. These videos are easy to share online through Brightspace.
  • Group presentations can be recorded with Zoom and either submitted to the instructor for review as an assignment in Brightspace or shared via Kaltura.
    • For peer feedback, these presentations can be shared with the rest of the class participants through a Discussion forum on Brightspace.
  • Kaltura videos can be created with embedded quizzes.
  • Exams or quizzes can be delivered through Brightspace.


Hands on Work, Lab Assignments


Field Trips, Service Learning 

  • As you consider adapting your course, consider what you wanted the students to get out of the experience. Are there other ways to provide similar or adjacent experiences? Some tools and resources that may be beneficial to explore include:
    • Building Google Earth tours or having students create their own – here is a tutorial on how to make your own virtual field trip.
    • Including documentaries, TED talks, or other pre-recorded material
    • Connecting your class with an expert in the field via Zoom as a guest lecturer