If you teach a course based on listening and speaking, for example a public speaking course, the synchronous, face-to-face component will be vital. For this reason, it’s important to still consider what elements of the course might be transferred to video form. We recommend that lectures or introduction of new content, and as much demonstration of speaking as is feasible be recorded as video. The LSA Instructional Video team can record these, help you plan them, and find just the right setting to achieve the effect you desire. While some things cannot be demonstrated well without physical presence, many things can be! This way, your synchronous time can be devoted to hands-on practice and to instructor and peer feeback.

We also suggest using video as a means of pre-class practice. This gives students extra time to work on their speaking and listening skills. Either a discussion board or a peer-review assignment will let students get peer and instructor feedback on their work before their in-class attempts. All the discussion tools that LSA has access to allow for video posts, so any of them will work for this purpose.

If you teach a language course, consult your department first. Many of the language departments already have a blueprint that they wish their instructors to use.

For a listening or speaking based course that is not already provided with a blueprint, this is the basic pattern we recommend:

Week X: [this week’s topic]

What we are doing this week (text page)

Readings and Materials (links, page ranges, videos, etc.)

Recorded Work (discussion or peer-reviewed assignmeng)

Zoom link if online/blended/hybrid (External URL link to specific meeting)

If you are providing any readings in electronic format, consider adding them as a Hypothesis or Perusall assignment, rather than simply linking to the file, so that students can share their annotations, reading notes, and questions with each other there, as well.

Example

Take a look at an example listening/speaking-based Module.

Import this Template into your Canvas Course

Visit Canvas Commons to find a blank discussion-based template to import into your Canvas course. 

To import a LSA Template into your Canas course:

1. Open Canvas.
2. Click the Commons icon in the left-side navigation menu.
3. Type LSA Teaching Remotely in the search bar.
4. Click the LSA Template you wish to import.
5. Click the blue Import/Download button.
6. Select the course in which to import the template.
7. Click the blue Import into Course button.  

View more detailed instructions on how to import a LSA Template into your Canvas course.

If you would like to consult with someone on the best way to use this template for your own course, contact the Learning and Teaching Technology Consultants at [email protected].

If you are teaching a language course, you can contact the Language Resource Center for assistance at [email protected].