Guide to Continuity of Teaching

In an emergency, you may be required to alter your course schedule and teaching method to accommodate for an extended campus shutdown.

Being prepared with a back-up plan for teaching your courses can help keep your class running smoothly during an emergency. Begin your plan by identifying the basic elements you need to meet your instructional objectives and being prepared to add additional materials, activities, and tools if needed during a possible shutdown.

For assistance contact the Center for Distance and Online Learning at (518) 629-7070 or dlhelp@hvcc.edu for help, services. and more information.

Pre-Emergency Planning Tips

  • Download your class lists and student contact information from WIReD or Brightspace.
  • At the beginning of the term, send your students a welcome email that includes your contact information or have it available in your Brightspace courses.
  • Remind students to check their college email or course Announcements on Brightspace for timely communications between the college and you.
  • Consider having your students participate in an online office hour via Zoom.
  • Have a copy of the syllabus or other course materials available for download via Brightspace, Office 365, or network drive.
  • Have accessible back-up copies of your course materials.
  • Consult with the Center for Distance and Online Learning for training or ideas.
  • Use the Instructor Checklist: My Continuity Plan (PDF) to identify your plan, as well as training and assistance needs in advance.

Tips for establishing communication in all classes

Establishing communication strategies in all classes from the beginning will support continuity in an emergency. Staying connected with students will avoid confusion and stress. Importantly, Title IV requires regular and substantive interaction in online course delivery. Here are some ways to prepare for continuity of communication from the first day of class.

  • Establish frequent and timely communications at the start of class.
  • Set expectations and identify processes for communication with students.
  • Ways to manage communications load:
    Determine what tool(s) you will use for communications and what would be most efficient. Email may become overwhelming if you receive many individual requests. Consider using a discussion forum in Brightspace such as an Ask the Prof. Or Frequently Asked Questions and consider setting up subscriptions so you and students can be notified via email when someone posts.

Continuity of communication

How can I remotely communicate updates, changes and timely news to some or all students about HVCC, the class, their work and grade status?

  • HVCC Email: All faculty, staff, and students at Hudson Valley Community College have email accounts and use Outlook. Email is one of the official communication channels and should be checked frequently by faculty, staff, and students for details on any emergencies and updates related to the disruptions of services at the college.
  • Brightspace Email Tool: Send emails to individual students, groups of students, or the entire class. You can send emails from the Envelope icon on the Brightspace menu bar.
  • Brightspace Announcement Tool: Post timely information within each class in Brightspace and send it out to students as an email notification. The announcement will remain in the course until deleted providing a single source for students. You can control its visibility by using date restrictions as needed.
  • Feedback and status using Brightspace Grades: Display grades to students by manually entering grades into columns, displaying grades from Brightspace graded activities, and providing feedback to students through comments and annotations. Students can access their Grades view from the Grades menu bar in any course on a computer or a device.

How can I shift my class discussions to asynchronous methods?

  • Brightspace Discussions: The Discussions tool offers threaded discussion forums that allow participants to create a thread or respond to an existing thread making it an easy and organized written discussion for others to read and follow. This tool offers multi-directional, asynchronous communication, interaction, and collaboration space within a Brightspace course. These can also be graded.
  • VoiceThread: You can use this tool for asynchronous discussions that combine audio, video, and text. This tool can be found within Brightspace through a content module, using Existing Activities. Create voice-over, video, or annotations using a computer, phone, or a device. This can also be graded.
  • YuJa Video Platform: YuJa is an easy-to-use video creation and sharing platform with robust accessibility support for video content. It also has features for student engagement with quizzing, analytics, and more.

How can I have a whole class, live, robust discussions during my usual class time?

  • Zoom: A web conferencing tool that allows many individuals to join the same meeting in real-time. Features include screen sharing, presentation modes, and the ability to record. Access Zoom inside Brightspace in the Tools area of Content, or directly from the HVCC Zoom website.
  • Office 365: Like Google Docs, Office 365 shared documents allow you to work on documents together in real-time for brainstorming, problem-solving, group and teamwork. Commenting features extend the communication between you and your students. All faculty, staff, and students have access to Office 365 through the campus website or directly at https://login.microsoftonline.com/. 

Continuity of Lectures

Synchronous Lectures (live)

What tools are available for me to conduct live lectures with my students on my usual schedule?

  • Zoom: A web conferencing tool that allows many individuals to join the same meeting in real-time. Features include screen sharing, presentation modes, and the ability to record. Access Zoom inside Brightspace in the Tools area of Content, or directly from the HVCC Zoom website.

Equipment Needed for VoiceThread, Zoom or YuJa

  • A computer, tablet, or mobile device and a good Internet connection
  • Optional: Stylus and touch screen
  • Headset/earbuds with mic (recommended)
  • Web camera (optional if you want students to see you)

Asynchronous Lectures (recorded)

What tools are available for me to shift my lecture content to pre-recorded video?

  • YuJa Video Platform: YuJa is an easy-to-use video creation and sharing platform with robust accessibility support for video content. It also has features for student engagement with quizzing, analytics, and more.
  • VoiceThread: A tool that allows you to record slide shows using PPT, videos, images, documents, or links to outside media, add video, text, or audio comments, and annotate slides. You can set it up as an assignment requiring viewing, or just ask questions to see what they have. Students can reply with video, audio, or text responses, both to you and to each other.

Equipment Needed for use of YuJa or VoiceThread:

  • A computer, tablet, or mobile device and a good Internet connection
  • Headset/earbuds with mic (recommended)
  • Web camera (optional if you want students to see you)

Additional Lecture Resources

What resources are available for me to replace my lectures?

Continuity of Assessments and Assignments

How can I administer high stakes multiple choice, multiple answer, matching, t/f, and other exams?

  • Brightspace Assessment Tools: The Brightspace test-building tools allow you to create tests that use multiple question types (Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, T/F, Essay, Short Answer, Matching, Ordering, and more). You can create questions within Brightspace or import test questions from Respondus or Publishers. Also, you can assign point values to each question, set up random sets of questions to produce different individual tests for students, set a test to be timed, and more. The test results are recorded in the Grade book, and some question types allow for automatic grading through Brightspace, while others require the instructor to grade manually. You can also provide students with answer feedback on whether it is immediately available to them or delivered later.
  • Respondus: This is a powerful tool for creating and managing exams that can be published directly to a learning management system or printed on paper. You can convert your text files (Word, Rich Text, Text) test files, with or without images in the Respondus format and easily upload the test into Brightspace using some basic formatting structures. There is only a PC version, so Mac users will need to get access to a PC. Respondus is available to the entire campus and for use at home by downloading the product to your computer. Submit a help request to get access to the download instructions and key.
  • Publisher and OER Resources: Publishers often allow you to download Test Bank files from their resource sites that can be imported and used within Brightspace. Or, the publisher/OER provider may have testing tools available for use within their own learning management system environments (McGraw-Hill, Cengage, Pearson, Lumen, etc.). Some publishers provide Word documents that can be converted to Respondus files and uploaded.

How can I administer an essay, presentation, problem-solving, verbal, or project-based exam or assignment?

  • Brightspace Assignment Tool: Students can submit written coursework easily and rubric tools can be attached to the assignment. Students can type within a text submission box to answer assignment questions, or they can attach files of their completed work. They can also import from cloud storage such as Google Drive. You can also attach any instructional files or worksheets you want them to download, complete, and submit by uploading. File submissions can be annotated while grading. Finally, through the grade book, you can see who has submitted work, grade the work, and provide feedback to students. There is an option for group assignments as well.
  • Turnitin Assignment Tool: This is an academic plagiarism detector used by teachers and students to avoid plagiarism and support academic integrity. Submissions run through the plagiarism detection software and originality reports are generated, allowing for learning and discussion opportunities for you and your students. Turnitin is a Brightspace LTI that allows you and your students to authenticate and access the Turnitin website within Brightspace to seamlessly submit assignments. Additional tools to support grading activities are available.
  • Office365 shared documents: Faculty and student documents can be shared in OneDrive and worked on simultaneously. The Office365 Forms app has a quiz template. Class Notebooks can be created to share content or work on projects for submission as a group. All faculty, staff and students have access to Office365 on the HVCC web site.
  • Journals: If interested in journaling, the Brightspace discussion forums can be used as a journal tool. Contact the Center for Distance and Online Learning for more information.
  • VoiceThread: is an interactive collaboration and sharing tool that enables users to add images, documents, and videos, and to which other users can add voice, text, audio file, or video comments. You can assign students to Create a VoiceThread (great for presentations), Comment on a VoiceThread (they watch a VT you assign and comment) or Watch a VoiceThread (which tracks whether students watch the VT or not). Can be graded.
  • Zoom: A web conferencing tool that allows many individuals to join the same meeting in real-time. You can use this to view student projects, assess language skills, view student presentations, and have students demonstrate their knowledge in real-time on video. Features include screen sharing, presentation modes, and the ability to record. Access Zoom inside Brightspace in the content modules through Existing Activities, then External Learning Tools, and choose Zoom.
  • Publisher or OER Assessment Environments: These are useful sources for assessment activities and testing. They provide a variety of assessment options that can be used for written, hands-on, or simulation assignments that assess students’ knowledge and performance. Many of these exist outside of Brightspace so they can be accessed directly. For Publisher resources check with your representative. For OER resources check with the OER Librarian at the Marvin Library.

Rapid Conversion for Continuity of Teaching

The Center for Distance and Online Learning offers training and support and encourages the following:

  • Prepare in advance: Workshops, tutorials and one-on-one appointments are available for faculty with fully online and web-enhanced courses year-round. Online training and support materials are available as well. Training and workshop schedules will be announced and posted on HVCC web site, but feel free to call for additional times and individual consultations.
  • Be ready with media tools so you can quickly switch over in an emergency: Training for YuJa Video Platform, VoiceThread, and other synchronous and asynchronous tools are available year-round. Training and workshop schedules will be announced and posted on HVCC web site, but feel free to call for additional times and individual consultations.
  • If you need to work or train from home due to a school shut-down: Just-in-time training for emergency alternative delivery can be scheduled remotely as needed. Existing training and support materials are available on the Distance and Online Learning Support Knowledge Base. Online training courses are available online and you can be added at any time.

Get in Touch

Center for Distance and Online Learning

Bulmer Telecommunications Center, Room 1042
(518) 629-7070

Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

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