In March and April 2020, teachers were tasked with the challenging transition to alternative methods of teaching to help their students complete the Winter 2020 semester. The approach varied from college to college and in some cases from department to department within the same college.

Rhys Adams from Vanier College and Phoebe Jackson from John Abbott College used a tool created by the SALTISE community known as CourseFlow to map out their courses and adapt the flow of their courses for alternative delivery.

Profweb and SALTISE invited the 2 teachers to discuss how they reorganized their courses and show us their designs in CourseFlow.

Podcast #2 is comprised of 2 parts:

1. Part 1 is an interview that describes the synchronous (real-time) approach used by Phoebe and the asynchronous (self-paced) approach used by Rhys.
2. Part 2 is a presentation of Rhys and Phoebe’s CourseFlow designs for the courses that they adapted to alternative teaching.

The challenge of reorganizing

In this interview, Kevin Lenton and I ask Phoebe and Rhys to describe their respective approaches in the wake of the announcement that colleges would attempt to complete the Winter 2020 semester through alternative course delivery.

Redesigning and tweaking course delivery with CourseFlow

In part 2 of the podcast, Phoebe and Rhys show us their CourseFlow designs. According to the CourseFlow website, “the [CourseFlow] app allows for the construction of an interactive and dynamic lesson plan and course outline.”

Other technologies mentioned

During the interview and presentation, a number of other technologies are mentioned. Here is a list with links to the websites for these technologies:

• LON-CAPA - a learning content management system with a focus on mathematical and natural sciences.
• myDALITE - a free open-source web-based platform that promotes conceptual learning.
• Microsoft Teams - a hub for teamwork in Office 365 that includes on-line meeting functionality.
• Omnivox tools (Léa and Mio) - a course management system used by many teachers (Léa) and an internal message system for Omnivox (Mio).
• PhET simulations - a series of freely accessible on-line Physics simulations.
• WeBWorK - an open-source online homework system for math and sciences courses.

Drop us a line!

Do you have any tools and tips that you are using as part of the transition to alternative teaching? Please share your feedback in the comments area below.