TEACH THROUGH CANVAS. Canvas is the primary place of learning and teaching for all UCC staff and students. Staff should complete the 'Teaching with Technology' course on Canvas and there is an excellent 24/7 Canvas Support for all UCC staff. Canvas is UCC’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or ‘Virtual Campus’. You can access and communicate with all your registered students via Canvas. 

CLARITY. When teaching remotely, clarity is critical. It needs to be clear to the student what is expected of them and the order in which they need to engage with materials/content and complete relevant coursework.

CHUNKING. This involves looking at the module content in its entirety and breaking up your content into similar sized ‘chunks’ which are easier for a student to work through (Ideally videos should be no longer than 5-7 minutes focusing on a single idea or theme).

COMMUNICATION Establish a clear plan on how and when you and your students will communicate throughout the academic year. For example, inform your students as to when they can expect replies to questions and where is appropriate to communicate (Canvas Announcements, Canvas Inbox, Discussion Boards or Email).

CONSISTENCY. Consistency of design, layout and mode of communication is crucial when teaching and learning remotely. This ensures a more seamless learning experience for the student.

Add activities to your module to foster engagement, provide feedback and enhance learning. This can include self-check quizzes, discussions and group work. Polling and quizzes can be particularly popular with students.

Panopto can be used from your own home or office laptop/PC and/or phone and can record presentations directly to your Canvas module. Panopto integrates well with Canvas and auto captioning of videos can be added (important for accessibility). Panopto can be used to record your screen (e.g.PowerPoint presentation) and/or your webcam/computer microphone.

• Minimise background noise when recording
• Make sure your webcam is at eye level
• Ensure your light source is in front of you rather than above or behind
• Do a short test recording where you can assess the quality of your audio and your camera angle.
• Video Recording Tips by Dr. Sarah Thelen, Instructional Designer

• UCC Getting Started with Panopto
• Using Panopto in Canvas
• 8 Minute Panopto Course Video
• 5 Tips to Improve the Audio Quality in Your Video Presentations
• A Guide on the Basics of Panopto for Module Teaching
• Contact panoptosupport@ucc.ie for support

Choosing whether to use MS Teams or Panopto Webcast depends on a number of factors and what you want to achieve. Generally, the university recommends Panopto for most instances of lecture recording.

Some thoughts on these are provided below:

Panopto

Panopto Webcast should be used for live lectures for groups where interaction is not required or limited to simple text Q&As. With no interaction, this is similar to a broadcast where you have no feebdack from your audience. Recordings are automatically saved into the appropriate folder, so there is no requirement for you to do anything else once the lecture is over.

MS Teams

MS Teams should be used for live lectures where you need interaction with virtual students in the form of typed, verbal or videod Q&A, polling or groupwork. This is recommended for small, manageable groups.

With MS Teams, bear in mind that you will need to manage the class while lecturing as people can raise their hand, post questions in the chat, request control of the screen, turn off their microphone, etc. MS Teams can accommodate meetings with up to 300 participants. However, if you have a large class, only 49 will be visible onsreen.

Once a meeting is over, those students who attended will be able to view the recording. To make the recording available to other students, you will need to download a video file from MS Stream (where all Team meetings are recorded) and then upload it into Panopto. Steps on how to do this can be found here.

A Word on Moderation

If you are running a live event which you are recording and expect interaction from students, we recommend you have a second person assisting you to moderate questions and contributions in order to allow you to focus on presentation.

Choosing whether to use MS Teams or Panopto Webcast depends on a number of factors and what you want to achieve. Some thoughts on these are provided below.

MS Teams

MS Teams should be used for live lectures where you need interaction with virtual students in the form of typed, verbal or videod Q&A, polling or groupwork. This is recommended for small, manageable groups.

With MS Teams, bear in mind that you will need to manage the class while lecturing as people can raise their hand, post questions in the chat, request control of the screen, turn off their microphone, etc. MS Teams can accommodate meetings with up to 300 participants. However, if you have a large class, only 49 will be visible onsreen.

Once a meeting is over, those students who attended will be able to view the recording. To make the recording available to other students, you will need to locate the video file on your OneDrive or Sharepoint (where all Team meetings are recorded) and then upload it into Panopto. Steps on how to do this can be found here.

Panopto

Panopto Webcast should be used for live lectures for large groups where interaction is not required or limited to simple text Q&As. With no interaction, this is similar to a broadcast where you have no feebdack from your audience. Recordings are automatically saved into the appropriate folder, so there is no requirement for you to do anything else once the lecture is over.

A Word on Moderation

If you are running a live event which you are recording and expect interaction from students, we recommend you have a second person assisting you to moderate questions and contributions in order to allow you to focus on presentation.

MS Teams is a UCC tool, has UCC support resources available and is integrated into Canvas. You can generate a Teams meeting from Canvas and all your students need to do is click on the link they receive. 

• How to Create a Teams Meeting in Canvas

Please remember that all live (synchronous) lectures should and can be recorded. When using MS Teams, ensure you record the live session so that students can revise content at a later date, and those who cannot attend for reasons beyond their control, also have access to the live lecture/session.

When inviting a student to a one-to-one meeting, or smaller group meeting in Teams, you need to schedule a teams meeting from Outlook. Steps on how to do that are here.

NOTE: Students who did not attend the meeting may not be able to view the recording afterwards, so you would need to complete an extra step of finding the video file on  your OneDrive or Sharepoint folder (where all MS Teams meetings are captured) and uploading it into Panopto. It is important to use Panopto as this will ensure the video is optimised for web delivery and made accessible to students for playback on different devices. Steps on how to do this can be found here.

Do you have questions you need answered about MS Teams? All Staff should join the Teaching with Technology team - an invaluable resource for staff, a community of shared knowledge and you can learn more on new and upcoming features too. For help with any technical issues you are having with MS Teams you can either email helpdesk@ucc.ie or submit a service request online through https://servicedesk.ucc.ie/

Panopto is the recommended tool that can be used to live stream lectures taking place on campus or from any laptop, that require little or no interaction.

The basics of using Panopto are covered in the Panopto module on the Teaching with Technology course on Canvas.

MS Teams

• UCC Getting Started with Panopto
• Using MS Teams in Canvas
• Useful Tips on Sharing Slides in Teams

Panopto

• UCC Getting Started with Panopto
• Using Panopto in Canvas
• 8 Minute Panopto Course Video
• 5 Tips to Improve the Audio Quality in Your Video Presentations
• A Guide on the Basics of Panopto for Module Teaching
• Contact panoptosupport@ucc.ie for support

The Teaching with Technology course contains everything you need to know about using Canvas and Panopto in UCC.

Click here for a list of some of the most commonly-used supports for UCC staff: Teaching with Technology: Supports for UCC Staff (Sarah Thelen)

On October 5th, the Irish Universities Association held a webinar entitled The Student Perspective of Online/Remote Teaching. This was run by student interns from participating universities under the IUA Enhancing Digital Teaching and Learning project. Most of what the students had to say is not surprising, as the same points have already been made in the 2019 INDEX survey and in other surveys with students. However, it is worth reminding ourselves of these tips, so we have distilled their advice down into Top 10 Tips from UCC Students to Staff Around Remote Teaching and Learning.

We know most of these tips are already being taken on board, but there may be a couple of things in there people haven't considered before.

This new MS Team was launched on September 21st. This is where you can go to ask any question around the use of educational technology in UCC.

It is staffed by students from the IT Helpdesk, who have back channel access to staff members from IT Services, the Learning Technologies Unit, Audio Visual Media Services, the Centre for Digital Education and the Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning.

It functions as a community of practice so you often see staff members sharing their experiences and tips on how to use a particular technology.

Please join this team by following this link.

• Fundamentals of Canvas video & Book Canvas Training here

• UCC Teach Digi Training Access our Weekly Sessions & Resources specifically preparing UCC staff for teaching in September. Video sessions are short and the content includes Student Engagement, Group work, Finding Materials, Playing to Your Strengths, Accessibility, Podcasting and much more.This training series is highly recommended for all UCC staff preparing to teach remotely in September.
• IUA EDTL (Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning) Project Approach to Effective Remote Teaching

All students are enrolled in the The Success Zone course, which covers support and tips from the Skills Centre, IT Services, the Library and Graduate Attributes. Please encourage students to visit this site if they have any questions.

Yes, UCC now offers a Teaching with Technology Support Service and online Teaching with Technology course.

The purpose of this service will be to answer queries from UCC staff about how best to use technologies available in UCC to support their teaching and learning activities.

This new service will provide a channel for queries on how to use technology such as Canvas, Panopto and MS Teams. The Service works through MS Teams, so staff simply go to the Team here, post a question and it will be answered online as soon as is possible. The service is staffed by two students who have been trained by IT Services and the CDE to deal with commonly asked questions.

Where questions can't be answered directly, queries are directed to the relevant expert staff:

• The Learning Technologies Unit (Grace, Maria, Tim) in IT Services will provide support around issues of administration of Canvas.
• The Centre for Digital Education (Sophie, Sarah, Rianna, Tom) in the Office of Vice President for Learning and Teaching will answer queries on how to use Canvas for teaching and policy questions.
• The Audio Visual Media Services team (Aidan, Eoin) will support the service around the use of Panopto and classroom technology.
• IT Services (Chris) will deal with common queries around MS Teams.
• The Centre for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (Catherine, Patrick) are there to provide support on questions relating to learning design and pedagogical activities.

Other supports available to staff include:

• UCC’s Centre for Digital Education offer Consultations with an Instructional Designer for individual staff or disciplines/departments
• UCC IUA EDTL (Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning) Project Lead Clíodhna O’Callaghan. Contact for support on navigating the first steps in ‘getting started’ with effective remote teaching
• UCC Learning Design Workshops – 90 Minute Collaborative Workshop Supporting Curriculum and Learning Design

• CUBS Teach Online Resource
• School of Chemistry Preparing for Online Teaching Doc
• UCC School of Law Blended Learning Guide
• School of Pharmacy Supporting Remote Teaching & Learning Doc
• CIRTL Hybrid Learning and Teaching

Some schools have also invested in local Instructional Design or technical supports.

• School of Nursing and Midwifery - Damien Drohan (damiendrohan@ucc.ie)
• School of Medicine - Kieran Nee (kieran.nee@ucc.ie)
• School of Pharmacy - Rebecca Leigh (rebecca.leigh@ucc.ie)
• School of Law - Pat Rice (P.Rice@ucc.ie)

Canvas 24/7 support is available through phonecall or online chat. You will see this under the Help menu item when you log into Canvas.

The Teaching with Technology Support Service is available to support you during office hours.

• Ways to teach online, by Dr Sarah Thelen

Please note that UCC has issued guidance to staff around the following:

• Timetables