Tips and Best Practices for Moving Your Tribal College Classroom Online

With the spread of COVID-19, tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are having to rapidly move classes online. For some faculty and students, the online learning environment can be challenging, daunting, and frustrating. Moreover, there are an overwhelming number of articles, videos, and other instructional resources out there making it next to impossible to know where to start. Below, you will find a simple annotated bibliography of articles and videos on best practices for moving your classes online.

I have tried to include a cross section for TCU faculty with varying levels of online teaching experience. Some of the selections below are basic entry-level resources for those who have never taught online, used Zoom, or even PowerPoint. Others are more detailed and comprehensive. The sources are arranged alphabetically, but due to the brevity of this guide, you can quickly scan the resources and select which ones seem most applicable to your class and match your familiarity with online instruction.

Bonner, A.D. (2020, March 27). Five Tips for Switching to Online Instruction. Faculty Focus. Retrieved at: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/online-education/five-tips-for-switching-to-online-instruction/

This concise article of five basic tips for migrating your TCU class online is a good starting point. Bonner keeps it simple and in doing so, helps alleviate the reader’s apprehension to web-based teaching and learning.

Cohn, J., & Seltzer, B. (2020, March 17). Teaching Effectively in Times of Disruption. Retrieved at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ccsudB2vwZ_GJYoKlFzGbtnmftGcXwCIwxzf-jkkoCU/preview#

The most comprehensive source on this list, academic technology specialists Jenae Cohn and Beth Seltzer of Stanford University give a detailed discussion of devising online pedagogy, migrating your classes online, facilitating student discussion and participation, and getting started with new learning technologies. The paper is aimed at instructors teaching online for the first time, but the guide is also useful for those with experience. Moreover, this 23-page paper is prefaced with a convenient table of contents that enables readers to reference applicable sections.

Gribetz, S.K. (2020, March 16). Using Zoom for Online Instruction: Tips for Undergraduate and Graduate as well as Adult Education Courses. Ancient Jew Review. Retrieved at: https://www.ancientjewreview.com/articles/2020/3/16/using-zoom-for-online-instruction-tips-for-undergraduate-and-graduate-as-well-as-adult-education-courses

This article begins with a simple overview of basic online instruction but goes on to delve more deeply into pedagogical strategies and best practices using the online platform Zoom. The author assumes her readers are just getting started with online teaching, explaining differences between synchronous and asynchronous instruction. She also assumes they are new to Zoom. Accordingly, she offers a step-by-step overview of the Zoom features that are especially useful for online classrooms.

Kramer, J. (2020, March 16). Best Practices When Moving Your Teaching Online in a Hurry. Harvard Extension School. Retrieved at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQKavQcWVMo&feature=youtu.be

This 30-minute YouTube video presented by Jen Kramer of the Harvard Extension School is a comprehensive overview to migrating your class online. The presentation is itself an example of an online lesson, as she utilizes a variety of elements, including videos (within the video), PowerPoint slides, and recorded lectures. Kramer delves more deeply into online teaching philosophy than other resources in this list, examining everything from “student tech checks” to self-assessment.

Lincoln Land Community College Learning Lab. (2015, July 28). Recording a PowerPoint Presentation with Voice-Over Narration and Saving it as a Movie File. Retrieved at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=selYsj94RQg

Running just under seven minutes, this tutorial offers simple instructions on how to record a PowerPoint presentation with narration. Educators will find this especially helpful for asynchronous online instruction. Although PowerPoint has been updated since this video was originally posted to YouTube, the basic recording premises remain the same.

Miami Dade College Learning Resources. (2019, May 16). Recording Presentations with Zoom. Retrieved at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHH5JEsa6B4

Although the narrator in this video is a robot whose voice inflections don’t seem to match what it is discussing, this short, two-minute tutorial from Miami Dade College is concise, easy to follow, and to the point. It offers a basic overview of how to record a Zoom presentation. Once users get the hang of it, they can then incorporate more nuanced Zoom features, many of which are discussed in other sources in this list (see Gribbetz and Cohn & Seltzer).

University of Minnesota. (2015, August 26). Designing Online Lectures and Recorded Presentations. Retrieved at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCAaRZJFJAU

A few years back, the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education produced a series of videos on teaching tips for the online classroom. This short, seven-minute segment focuses on five guidelines when putting together an online presentation. What makes this segment especially insightful are the student responses and commentary the videographers included—we hear from the learners what works and what doesn’t.

Bradley Shreve, PhD, is editor of Tribal College Journal and former faculty at Diné College, where he developed and taught a variety of history courses online.