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GETTING STARTED WITH MULTI-MODAL LEARNING
DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) has assembled an array of resources and tools to facilitate and support the DUT academic community as we rise to the challenge presented by the pivot to emergency remote teaching and take the necessary steps toward multimodal teaching and learning.

UNDERSTANDING THE PIVOT FROM FACE-TO-FACE TO REMOTE /MULTIMODAL TEACHING & LEARNING

The DUT Remote Teaching Guide will assist lecturers, to transition from face to face teaching to remote teaching as part of the University’s continuity plans for the academic programme during the Covid-19 national lockdown.

INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT MULTIMODAL AND REMOTE TEACHING AND LEARNING:
1. MOODLE SUPPORT AND TRAINING

Moodle remains the primary learning management system (LMS). Follow the steps in Moodle Essentials for Lecturers — this is the quickest route to get up and running with a course.   Page 1 of this guide has important contact details for assistance and information on how to access more detailed and advanced training modules.

2. MICROSOFT TEAMS SUPPORT AND TRAINING

Microsoft Teams provides a collaborative space that holds the potential to make learning online personal, engaging and socially connected. Microsoft Teams facilitates collaborative classrooms and   professional learning communities to share content and communicate online with both students and colleagues.

 

For further assistance, contact the CELT eLearning Unit, ITSS or faculty-based Academic Development Practitioners.  For asynchronous online assistance and information via MS Teams Sandbox, click here

 

Additional information:

  • MS Teams Quick Start Guide, click here.
  • MS Teams Video Training, click here.
  • Creating, attending, and running meetings while using MS Teams for distance learning, click here.
  • An interactive guide on how to use Microsoft Teams to personalise student learning, click here.
  • Webinars and MOOCs on MS Teams: click here.
  • Microsoft’s Higher Education Remote Learning Support Centre, click here.

3. CURRICULUM CONSIDERATIONS: REVIEW OF MODULES FOR REMOTE LEARNING TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT

This initiative focuses on decision-making and choices about the planned curriculum and how/what will be enacted in the online platform. This involves making decisions about what knowledge is selected and how it will be sequenced and paced for remote learning. It also involves choices about pedagogies and assessments and their alignment to the intended learning outcomes for the modules within the context of a University of Technology.

 

Academic staff can engage synchronously or asynchronously and will be supported via webinars, curated online content sharing, weblinks, and audio and video materials.

For further assistance, advice or a personal consultation, please contact CELT’s Staff Development unit.

4. PEER SUPPORT

Volunteer provided synchronous eLearning support available via DUT Staff eLearning Support, weekdays during:

  • 10H00-12H00
  • 13H00-15H00

 

A directory of Champions, linked to the Volunteer eLearning support initiative currently provides asynchronous eLearning support to colleagues.

5. HOW TO…GUIDES

Click on the following HOW TO….Guides, to help you transition to remote online practices:

ONLINE SPACES:
Moodle Essentials   – User friendly approach to getting started on the primary LMS for the institution. Moodle serves as a hub of powerful tools to communicate, teach and assess learning.       
MS Teams Quick Start Guide        – User friendly approach to getting started with MS Teams.  A single digital hub that brings together in a single space, conversations, content, and other applications.   
LECTURE CAPTURE:
Podcasting for Beginners 1Podcasting for Beginners 2    – Offer academics the opportunity to broadcast engaging audio content, which students can listen to anytime and anywhere. They are easy to create, distribute and can enhance students’ learning experiences due to flexibility and retention.      
Narrated PowerPoint        – Add a personal touch to your slides. Record a narration (audio clip) for each slide. Export narrated presentation as a video file for easy & convenient playback. 

 

MS Team recording     – Record a meeting by yourself in Teams to capture audio, video, and screen sharing activity. The recording happens in the cloud, and is saved to Microsoft Stream.     
Screencast-O-Matic    – Screencasting tool to support lecture capture, flipped classrooms, student generated video assignments, etc.     
LOW TECH COMMUNICATION:
Moodle Announcements     –  A special forum for general news and announcements, which is automatically created in a new course. It has a forced subscription, which means that every post will be disseminated to students via email.    
MicroSoft Teams Announcements    –  An announcement instead of a conversation alerts members to an important message, by making it stand out in the Channel.     
WhatsApp    –  Allows you communicate with students via text and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, etc.   

6. MOOCs and WEBINARS on REMOTE TEACHING AND LEARNING

MOOCs: Below is a list of a few MOOCs to assist with developing knowledge and skills in teaching online/remote teaching. 

  • Learning to Teach Online offered by the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
  • Get Interactive: Practical Teaching with Technology offered by the University of London
  • Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Web 2.0 Tools offered by the University of Houston
  • Exploring Emerging Technologies for Lifelong Learning and Success offered by The State University of New York, Buffalo
  • How To Teach Online: Providing Continuity for Students offered by FutureLearn

 

If you are keen to enrol for a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) related to teaching online, please click here to access a curated list of possible MOOCs

 

Webinars: For a curated list of Webinars on emergency remote teaching to assist you with the transition from face-to-face teaching to blended/online teaching. To participate in a webinar, please click here and select the link next to the one you would like at attend.

 

If you are keen to listen to pre-recordings of selected webinars, please click here to see a list of webinar recordings

7. e-ASSESSMENTS

Click here for the e-Assessment Guide and for a copy of the DUT Assessment Policy Click here.

8. TECHNOLOGY FOR LEARNING (TFL) - STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT

A team of dedicated academic support staff and tutors have been mobilised to provide student support for Moodle, MS Teams and other Office 365 applications/platforms during the lockdown period and beyond.  Virtual training will commence, as students are provided with zero-rated access.

 M1 Technology for Learning  (TFL)         
 T1 Technology for Learning (TFL)
 F1 DUT Technology for Learning
I1 @DUTTFL
 W1 Technology for Learning (TFL) Support Group – 0829368649 [Mr Simon Ndlovu]

 

User guides for students will distributed as they become available, via the Student Portal.

2020 TFL Student Guide

9. SOCIAL MEDIA – SUPPORT RESOURCES

TWITTER – @DutRemoteLearn is a twitter handle that aims at sharing emerging trends on remote learning from around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Feel free to contribute.

 

FACEBOOK – DUT Remote Learning It is also envisaged that academics will use the online space to share resources and their concerns/challenges/experiences on remote LTA.

 

This is a live site and will be continuously updated and enhanced in response to the pandemic and the immediate focus is on the rapid response to remote LTA.