Best Practices for Virtual Classrooms

 Plan and Practice

• Adapt in-person materials to online sessions. Lectures, review sessions, group discussions, and presentations can be effective. Be creative and have fun!
• Prepare materials to share online (Powerpoints, documents, web links)
• Gather information about the class size, technical access, and learning objectives.
• Rehearse with Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. Confirm your equipment works (microphone, webcam, internet)

 Communicate Expectations

 Create and share clear requirements for:

• Attendance: Mandatory for all sessions? Will they have to check in? Should they be visible at all times?
• Participation: Must stay logged in and present, must answer questions when asked.
• Chat: On or off? Mics muted? Prepare guidelines for asking questions
• Conducive environment: Distractions minimized.

 Facilitate Effectively

• Start and end session on time.
• Confirm students can hear you clearly.
• Stay on topic. Move at a good pace. Check in with your students periodically.
• Ask designated monitor to check chat for questions.

 Engage Learners

• Break at intervals to check for understanding, gauge attention, and switch topics.
• Gain and regain attention by asking students to participate using a variety of tools, such as whiteboard, polling, small group work, and questions.
• Take students to higher levels of learning using application questions, analysis, and case studies.
• Give students opportunities to facilitate sessions, share screens or give presentations.

 Follow Up

• Communicate time and location of session recordings and post as promised.
• Provide additional resources like articles, summaries, and videos.
• Promptly respond to lingering questions or expand on content.
• Ask for feedback to improve the next session.
• Jot down modification ideas soon after the session ends.