Remote Teaching Checklist

Use this checklist to prepare for teaching class online.

For more in-depth information on related topics see:

• Preparing to Work Remotely - Checklist
• Planning an Online Course

If you have urgent questions during your class, contact 215-573-0402.

Advance Preparation

• Review our recommendations on the  prepare to work remotely article, and check out Zoom best practices.
• Schedule a synchronous meeting in your Canvas course.
• Contact any speakers in advance to confirm the tech they are using. If feasible, schedule a meeting to test their tech well in advance.
• Assign a chat moderator (TA or student) to track class discussion and repeat questions for the recording.
• If you haven't taught a class using video conferencing before, consider doing a dry run with colleagues or others to get comfortable with the technology.

Best Practices

• Mute on Joining: When you join the meeting, we recommend you mute your audio except when you are speaking. The noise made by typing, eating, or coughing can come through the audio very loudly.
• Set Expectations: If you are running the meeting, let people know what you expect. How do you want students to indicate that they have a question or comment? How will you measure their participation in this new, online format? How do you expect them to use the chat feature? All of these topics, and any others you feel are important, should be addressed during your first online session or before. 
• Recording: Let people know you are recording.

Just Before Class

Prep 15 minutes before class start.

• Log in to your Canvas site and access Zoom from the course screen; choose the correct class session.
  
• Take note of meeting ID#, moderator code, and contact info for getting help.
  • best to do this on another device or on paper in case of computer issues.
    
• Test--check your connection, audio, and video by joining a test meeting: (For Zoom the test meeting wizard will provide prompts):
  1. Microphone
  2. Video
  3. Screen Sharing (Zoom help here )
  4. External Equipment/Presentation Materials
• If there is a guest speaker, invite them to the meeting and then test their technology (even if you have already tested in a previous meeting).
• CONFIRM RECORDING HAS STARTED.

During Class

• Hold your synchronous class meeting.
• Monitor chat regularly for questions and comments.
  • If you are teaching alone, stop screensharing for a minute or two to check chat periodically OR use another device joined to the meeting to monitor chat.
  • If you are team teaching, ask the non-presenting faculty to monitor chat.
  • Appoint a TA/student as chat monitor.
• End the recording (the recording will continue recording until EVERYONE has left the call):
  1. Click the hangup icon at the top of the meeting.
  2. Check the Drop Everyone box on the pop-up window.
  3. Click Leave.

After Class

• After 36 hours, confirm recording has uploaded to Canvas. (If it has not, use these directions to manually upload.)

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting steps, start with our Zoom FAQ.

Questions?

More information about teaching online is available in our Working & Teaching Remotely section.  For non-urgent questions that aren't answered there, contact your Wharton Computing Representative.