This message was sent by Cynthia Golden, Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director, University Center for Teaching and Learning
Remote Teaching Support: March 16, 2020
Dear Colleagues,
You are receiving this special message from the Teaching Center because you have been identified by your dean or president as point person to help us disseminate important information about maintaining instructional continuity to faculty and to those who support them. Please feel free to forward all messages to your faculty and ensure this information reaches your part-time faculty--many of our sessions have been scheduled for late afternoon and evenings to help accommodate varying schedules.
Today’s Reminders:
1) Zoom Video Conferencing is now available to all University faculty, staff, and students. You can access the conferencing tool by visiting Pitt’s Zoom webpage and creating an account or logging in with your University credentials.
Important Notes:
- Zoom is compatible with CourseWeb/Blackboard and we anticipate that it will be compatible with Canvas very soon.
- The Zoom Help Center contains a variety of resources to help you get started with using this video conferencing tool. We encourage you to view these resources for assistance with audio and video sharing, scheduling class meetings, and for a general overview of how you can use the tool to conduct synchronous meeting sessions.
- The Teaching Center has a Getting Started with Zoom page as an additional resource repository.
- Pitt Information Technology’s Zoom Video Conferencing page provides information about Zoom’s capabilities and links to a variety of help resources.
2) As a reminder, we will host remote office hours and virtual workshops throughout the week and plan to make recorded versions available very soon. You can find more information about each of these resources on our Teaching Center webpage.
Virtual Workshops
These workshops are just-in-time, focused discussions on a specific topic related to teaching remotely. All workshops will be conducted via Zoom, are approximately one hour in length, and all times are EDT. Note: Zoom information for each workshop is now available.
Tuesday, March 17
- 9 a.m.: Lecturing in the Remote and Online Environments
- 10 a.m.: Developing a Communication Plan for Remote and Online Learning
- 11 a.m.: Using Zoom
- 12 p.m.: Essentials for Remote Teaching
- 1 p.m.: Facilitating Discussions from a Distance
- 2 p.m.: Developing a Communication Plan for Remote and Online Learning
- 3 p.m.: Lecturing in the Remote and Online Environments
- 4 p.m.: Using Zoom
- 5 p.m.: Essentials for Remote Teaching
- 6 p.m.: Facilitating Discussions from a Distance
Remote Office Hours
We will be hosting remote office hours throughout the week. These are drop-in style, question-and-answer discussions via Zoom.
- Tuesday, March 17, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.: Open Q & A
- Wednesday, March 18, 10 – 11 a.m.: Assignments
- Wednesday, March 18, 6 -- 7 p.m.: Open Q & A
- Thursday, March 19, 12 p.m. – 1 p.m.: Tests and Quizzes
- Friday, March 20, 9 – 10 a.m.: Academic Integrity/Anti-Cheating
3) The Teaching Online @ Pitt (TOP) course is now available to all faculty. This is a self-paced, à la carte online course and instructors are free to explore what modules and topics are most relevant to their needs. These resources are designed to help instructors expand their pedagogical understanding of the practices that make for successful online teaching and learning. You can enroll in the Teaching Online @ Pitt course today.
Please continue to visit the Teaching Center webpage for updated information on instructional continuity.