I come to you from the University of Lethbridge, which is situated on the traditional territory of the Siksikaitsitapii (Blackfoot Confederacy), and Métis Nation of Alberta Region 3.

Our university's Blackfoot name is Iniskim, meaning sacred buffalo stone.

It is a pleasure to be meeting today on the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation.

Any mixture of online and in-person components, but presumably more than using your LMS.

Use of digital resources to support student learning, including videos, online learning modules (e.g. online homework), and discussion forums.

A great way to keep your students actively engaged, both inside and outside of class.

It frees up class time for active learning, projects, etc.

It gives students ways to connect with you and each other outside of class.

It gives students more ways to direct their own learning.

It gives you – the instructor – flexibility.

It's easier to “pivot” if necessary. (It's not that far from hybrid.)

(Heard through Steven Clontz.)

Just as many web developers have made the switch to a “mobile first” strategy, perhaps it's time for instructors to consider an “online first” strategy for teaching?

That is:

• Ensure that your course functions for online learning, with classroom activities as a useful supplement.

• Accept that in person access is a luxury, not a necessity, e.g. for students with disabilities. (Prioritize access for all.)

• Give yourself the freedom to shift a class online when needed.

• Empower students to learn using the methods and modalities that work best for them, rather than what worked best for you.

Your LMS almost certainly supports some sort of discussion forum.

Does it work for your students? (Does it support the features they want/need?) Examples: equation editor, mobile app, anonymous posting.

My current go-to is Campuswire.

Features include:

• Q&A forum with support for math and code highlighting, multiple answers (with upvoting), and optional anonymity

• Chat rooms (public or private) for students to orgainize study groups, group projects, etc.

• Direct messaging (this can really cut down on email!)

• “Live rooms”, with voice and video.

• There are also in-class features such as polling.

After two years of online teaching, all of us have the tools to make simple screencast recordings.

You probably even have some videos saved from those years!

You can embed those videos in your LMS (or even your textbook!)

Free tools such as h5p exist to turn your existing videos into interactive exercises.

Online homework makes sense even if your class is fully in-person.

Students get lots of practice, and immediate feedback.

You free up precious grading time for richer activities an assignments.

Often this can be integrated into your LMS or even your textbook.

Textbooks can, of course, also be online. But this should be a better experience than a simple PDF.

Having videos, homework, and textbook online is great, but if they're all in different places, students will struggle to connect the pieces.

Skillful LMS management can mitigate this, but even better is if these can be combined into a single resource.

PreTeXt books can do this, and do it for free. (See, for example, Active Calculus or APEX Calculus.)

Next step in tying things together: let students earn homework credit as they work through the book.

Runestone Academy: created by Bradley Miller (Professor Emeritus, Luther College) to provide low (or no) cost interactive online textbooks on computer science.

PreTeXt partnership:

• Runestone adds math (and other) books to its library

• PreTeXt gets interactive questions and cool new features

• Students can log into a PreTeXt book on Runestone, and get credit for answering questions as they read.

A sample work in progress.

Any scenario where an instructor attempts to teach simultaneously to two cohorts:

• one “in person” (presumably in the classroom)

• one “remote” (in another country, or another building on campus).

For passive lectures, this is actually not too hard, with the right setup. (In my case: classroom computer running Zoom and projecting; I join on my tablet to deliver content.)

I don't know how to do hybrid active learning well. (Especially if it's group/team based.)

Note that I don't say “hybrid learning”. Hybrid refers to how we deliver the class, not how students learn.

Blended learning I think is not a misnomer. We are providing students with multiple modalities for learning; some are online, some are not.

Maybe a good modern syllabus finds ways to let students choose the format that works best for them.