October tips & tricks for distance learning

By the OER Project Team

At the OER Project, we’re always eager to collect feedback so that we can best support you. Considering how new Teaching at a Distance is for all of us, we’d love to hear what you think about our TaaD materials. What’s working? What’s not? What would you like to see? Let us know here!

At this point in the school year, teaching remotely may still feel brand new—or, it may be hard to remember a time when your days weren’t filled with breakout rooms and requests for your students to mute/unmute. Maybe you feel like you’re finally getting your sea legs, or maybe you are still grappling with daily challenges—likely, a little bit of both!

To cap off the month of October, we’re highlighting some of our most-used resources for Teaching at a Distance (TaaD). Find specific instructions for adapting activities for both synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as TaaD tips and tricks from OER Project learning scientist, Rachel Phillips.

Read about some of our favorite activities, adapted for distance learning, below:

First off, claim testing! Claim testing is an important skill to share early on, as students will be evaluating and making claims throughout the course, as well as in their daily lives. We’ll help you introduce the four claim testers—intuition, logic, authority, and evidence—using Google slides (and even a fun, click-and-drag game!) in both synchronous and asynchronous settings.

Next up: Redraw the Frames: The World History Project (WHP) uses three frames—communities, networks, and production and distribution—to help students make sense of what they are learning and make connections between what happened in history and their lives today. This quick, creative activity has students make a collage on a Google slide using their own drawings or pictures from the internet. This activity helps students understand the three frames in relation to the content they are currently studying and, even more important—it’s fun!

And check out these videos for some distance learning troubleshooting:

Backup Plan: At some point, someone is going to experience issues with their internet connection—it might be your connection, it might be a student’s. We suggest creating a (simple) backup plan, so that in the event of connectivity issues, students have some guidance.

Small Group Work Roles: Small group work is probably a big part of your TaaD curriculum, but we all know that students can sometimes get a bit silly when left to their own “devices” (literally and figuratively!). Rachel Phillips shares some advice on how to make collaborative work more positive and productive.

For more tips, tools, and resources in our TaaD Center—including the popular Three Close Reads guide for distance learning—register or log into your OER Project Account. As with everything else in the OER Project, it's free!

Have a question, or a piece of advice you’d like to share with other teachers? Join the OER Project Community!