Teaching remotely

Zoom (remote teaching & learning) is the primary service recommended for conducting classes remotely. Zoom is integrated with myCourses, allowing instructors to easily create online meetings for their entire class, chat with or without video, and deliver presentations.

Instructors can also record sessions and share them with students in myCourses.

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Online collaboration and web conferencing

There are two tools for online collaboration and web conferencing:

• Microsoft Teams (offered through Office 365) is a collaborative space where students and professors can:
  • interact via web conferencing
  • interact via group chat
  • collaborate on documents
• Webex (web conferencing) is used for presentations and meetings.

Training for Microsoft Teams (COL 101, 102) and Webex (COL 610, 615) is available via IT Training.

See: MS Teams and Webex Best Practices

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Creating online lectures

Recording class lectures

There are three tools for recording class lectures:

• Lecture Recording System (LRS) automatically records course lectures, including demonstrations and student presentations, for an entire term. The LRS is installed in specific rooms on both the downtown and Macdonald campuses. See About: Lecture recording for instructors
• Zoom: ensure the Recordings option is selected in your Zoom meetings and that the title of the scheduled meetings contains the name and number of your course. See Lecture Recording settings in myCourses
• Screen Recording software (Camtasia Studio) is a free download from the McGill Software Site that can record audio and PowerPoint presentations, which can then be uploaded to the Lecture Recordings within myCourses.

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Accessing and sharing online content

McGill Library

Instructors can access online teaching, learning, and research materials (including e-journals, e-books, course reserves, teaching support tools, and Subject guides) through the McGill Library.

To access restricted library resources from off campus, instructors should use the following:

• Library website
• WorldCat Discovery
• "McGill Library Full Text" links in Google Scholar

These resources do not require accessing the McGill VPN, but you will be prompted to log in with your McGill username and password. For more information, including a list of the Library resources that require the VPN, visit the Library's Accessing online resources page.

Sharing files on myCourses

You can upload any type of document to myCourses (e.g., PDF, Word document, PowerPoint presentation), but remember that the end user will need the appropriate software to view the files.

You can host files larger than 10 MB on Microsoft Teams or a central server and link to them from myCourses. In addition, you can upload videos to Stream (Video Sharing Platform).

Files can also be uploaded to a McGill Webex or OneDrive account.

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Communicating with students via myCourses

myCourses has two tools for communicating with students:

• Email: Use the mail tool within myCourses to send mail to the class, but retrieve mail from Outlook.
• Announcements: Instructors and teaching assistants can use this tool to post announcements in myCourses.

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Student group work via myCourses

myCourses has two tools for facilitating student group work:

• Discussions
  This asynchronous online forum can be used for questions, discussions, debates, etc. Both public and private groups are possible.
• Chat
  This tool allows for real-time discussion.

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Student evaluation via myCourses

myCourses has three tools for student evaluations:

• Assignments: Students can submit files of any format. Instructors can view, manage, evaluate, and return submissions to students with feedback.
• Quizzes: Several options are available to create auto-corrected quizzes and essay-type exams.
• Grades: This tool can record grades and release individual grades (and statistics) to students.

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