GSI Remote Teaching Hub

Every course starts with a syllabus, and we also recommend a pre-course survey. Here are some samples, targeted specifically for remote instruction.

• Checklist of Getting Started as a GSI Teaching Remotely
• Checklist for Continuing GSIs Teaching Remotely
• General Tips for Writing a Syllabus for Remote Instruction
• Sample Syllabus Policies and Course Information for Remote Instruction
• Sample Section Syllabus
• Sample Pre-Course Survey for Remote Instruction

Most courses taught remotely at UC Berkeley will include bCourses and Zoom. Explore our recommended training on getting started with bCourses and Zoom.

bCourses

Zoom

1. Communicate early and often with the Instructor of Record.

• Reference the Pre-Semester Checklist for Getting Started as a GSI Teaching Remotely for questions to ask in your first meeting with the Instructor of Record.
• Inform yourself of important campus policies related to remote instruction and discuss them with the Instructor of Record as appropriate.
• Meet regularly with the Instructor of Record throughout the semester.
• Review Article 32 of the UC UAW contract, which describes how the overall hours for the semester may be distributed and the process for resolving issues over workload.
• Keep track of the hours you spend on all activities associated with your GSI appointment.
• If you find yourself exceeding your appointment percentage (e.g., for a 50% GSI, 20 hours per week; please see Article 32 of UC UAW contract), then it is up to you to alert the instructor as soon as you can so that they can work with you to make the necessary adjustments.
• Speak openly with the Instructor of Record about workload expectations, and continue to check in during the semester.  If there are additional but essential tasks due to the Remote Teaching environment, talk about what other tasks might be simplified to reduce the required time.
• If you have any questions or concerns, you might also contact your department’s Faculty Advisor for GSI Affairs, who should be available to discuss a variety of issues around your GSI appointment.

2. Actively solicit appropriate information about your students and their situations.

• Use a pre-course survey to identify the technological devices that students have, the reliability of their Internet connections, their time zone and their access to a quiet workspace.
• Consider including pre-course survey questions about how students tend to feel most comfortable participating in class, their past preparation for the kind of course you are teaching, and what has worked well for them in the remote classes they have taken before.
• Consider including one or more pre-course survey questions that will help you build community and connection with students (e.g., what kinds of media have they been enjoying recently?).
• Be careful not to solicit information that invades your students’ privacy (e.g., whether they are responsible for childcare).
• Encourage students to let you know about their DSP accommodations on your syllabus, in your first announcement to them, and in your first synchronous or recorded asynchronous meeting.
• Include a question on your mid-semester feedback form about any changes in students’ access to technology or general situations that might impact their learning.

3. Review, respond, and adjust your teaching according to the information that your students provide.

• If you have students who do not have access to a needed laptop, hotspot, tablet, webcam, microphone or headphones, refer them to STEP.  Then, follow up to confirm that they were able to get the device(s) they needed.  Keep in mind that the functionalities of Zoom and other platforms differ based on the devices your students use.
• If you have students who have DSP accommodations, ask the Instructor of Record what adjustments will be made to honor them, and specify who will communicate with the students about them.
• If you ask about students’ preferred modes of participation on your pre-course survey, be transparent with students about the range of activities and ways of participating that they prefer, and let them know that you will use a variety of approaches to help them learn the material.

4. Actively foster connection with your students.

• Consider creating short, regular weekly video announcements rather than written announcements to convey your presence and support for your students. This may help them feel comfortable coming to you with questions and concerns.
• Be open to scheduling office hours at various times.
• Consider requiring students to meet with you at least once and ask directly what you can do to support their learning.
• Consider spending some time explaining how office hours work and how students can make use of them, and actively mentor your students in your office hours rather than assuming that they know how to make the most of their one-on-one time with you.
• If you include pre-course survey questions to build community, review students’ answers and use them to build rapport and engagement.
• Follow up promptly with students who miss assignments, class meetings, or office hours.

5. Actively foster connection and collaboration among your students.

• Consider developing community agreements with or for your class/section/studio/lab.
• Consider organizing groups that your students work in for extended periods.
• Consider setting up an asynchronous discussion board where they can post questions for each other.
• Consider scheduling Zoom meetings just for them to work with each other.
• Consider offering to organize opt-in study groups so that no one who would like to participate is left out.

6. Practice inclusion.

• Include a statement on your section syllabus expressing that you are dedicated to supporting all students’ access to the resources and support they need to succeed in your class.
• Provide links to campus resources including programs that grant access to technology, DSP, basic needs support, etc. (see sample diversity and inclusion syllabus statements here).
• Specify what your students can do if something happens in your class/section/studio/lab that feels exclusionary or offensive.  Can they go to you?  If they don’t feel comfortable going to you, can they submit a concern anonymously or go to someone else?
• Learn how to pronounce your students names, and then pronounce them correctly.
• Give students a way to share their gender pronouns, if they wish (e.g., on your pre-course survey, by editing their Zoom name).
• Keep in mind that the pandemic has had disproportionate impacts on BIPOC students, working class and poor people, undocumented people, and women (to name a few), and that this may have repercussions for your students and/or their family members.
• Include questions on your mid-semester evaluation about how the students are experiencing inclusiveness in your class/section/studio/lab.
• Actively monitor Zoom chat and discussion boards and respond promptly if you see anything that could be offensive or exclusionary.

7. Mind your students’ “cognitive load.”

• Remember that too much stress hampers cognitive processing. Help your students re-orient to your class/section/studio/lab by regularly reminding them of the content you have covered so far, and showing them how it connects to what you’re doing now.
• Offer review sessions.  If possible and needed, shift assignment deadlines and/or reduce the demands placed on students. Be sure to get any changes approved by the Instructor of Record.
• Acknowledge the news of the day, and when necessary, give students the chance to discuss it (or to opt out of such discussions with no penalty).
• Look out for “water cooler talk” about events that may be particularly upsetting to some.

8. Actively check your students’ comprehension.

• Use “low stakes assessments” to check students’ comprehension regularly.
  • Asynchronous:
    • Five-minute papers
    • bCourses quizzes with explanations for right and wrong answers
• Q&A discussion boards
  • Synchronous:
    • Solicit questions from students:
      • Pause and acknowledge that the material you are covering is difficult.
      • Express that you expect students to have questions.
      • Give them a minute to formulate questions alone or with peers.
      • Provide multiple ways for students to ask questions including, if possible, anonymously.
  • Use polls and discuss the results together.
  • When having students work together in breakout rooms, require some clearly determined output (e.g., answers to a question in a Google doc or shared whiteboard) so you can see how they are understanding the material.  For more on effective group work, reference this article.

• Break larger assignments down into smaller parts and provide scaffolding and feedback as students work on each component. To keep your workload manageable, build peer feedback into the process.

9. Actively solicit your students’ feedback.

• Use informal polls or Google forms to gather students’ feedback about what is and is not working for them.
• Administer a mid-semester feedback form to have students assess the impact of your teaching on their learning. Share a summary of their responses and let them know what adjustments you will make given their feedback.

10. Choose your technology wisely.

• Technology tools should be selected based on the learning outcomes you are trying to achieve. Identify learning outcomes for each activity, class, or assignment and evaluate which tools will best enable your students to reach the outcomes. Remember that, in addition to cognitive learning outcomes, others such as fostering inclusion, collaboration, and a sense of belonging are worthy outcomes in their own right.
• Students are subject to technological overwhelm. Only introduce new technology that:
• Allows you to do important things that the technology you are already using cannot do.
• Works in the service of your learning objectives (not novelty).

11. If you are designing the syllabus, carefully consider the affordances and limitations of synchronous versus asynchronous activities.

• As much as possible, provide opportunities for students to fulfill course requirements asynchronously. Limit mandatory synchronous activities.
• Pre-record all lecture content with closed captions; provide access to slides and lecture notes beforehand. Please note that if an Instructor of Record receives a formal request for captioning in a student’s Letter of Accommodation, the instructor is required to provide that accommodation. Captions required as part of an accommodation should be provided by the Disabled Students’ Program (DSP). Automated captions generated, for example, by Google or YouTube are not acceptable. (Please see DSP’s Communication Services for Faculty and Instructors).
• Use untimed assessments; consider flexible deadlines, with approval from the Instructor of Record.
• If you do any non-recorded synchronous activities, provide alternatives for students who cannot attend, e.g., a worksheet with questions and prompts that students can use to follow along and confirm their comprehension; a recorded summary of the discussion that happened (“we discussed a, covered b, c, and d, and concluded e”).
• Use synchronous meetings to promote engagement and collaborative learning (polls, breakout rooms, chat).

Below are content-specific best practices created by GSIs during the summer 2020 Graduate Remote Instruction Innovation Fellows Program. Explore these detailed best practice guides based on common GSI assignments.

(Re)Designing discussion sections

• Best practices for STEM
• Best practices for social sciences and humanities

Teaching labs (STEM)

Teaching Reading and Composition

Teaching foreign languages

Teaching studios

(Re)Designing courses

• Best practices for STEM
• Best practices for social sciences and humanities

Our 2020 GRI (Graduate Remote Instruction) Innovation Fellows reviewed technical tools that could be used in remote instruction. Peruse their reports below.

A

Artsteps

B

bCourses

• Add Zoom Meeting
• Best Practices for Humanities
• Module Template and Personalized Course Site for R&C

G

Google Earth

Gradescope

• Best Practices for STEM
• Tutorial

K

Kahoot

Kaltura

M

Macro

Q

Qualtrics

S

Screencastify

Slack

Slido

Streetcar 2 Subduction

Z

Zoom

• Tutorial
• Etiquette Guide for Students

Need to create asynchronous content for your course, or instruction that occurs outside of “in-person” class time, like quizzes, discussions, collaborations, videos, or narrated slide presentations? Explore these recommended tools.

bCourses

Zoom Recording

PowerPoint

Kaltura (bCourses My Media)

Google

If you are a GSI, you can get one-on-one help from a Graduate Student Teaching Consultant or an Instructional Designer.

Schedule a meeting

Meet with a Graduate Student Teaching Consultant

Meet with an Instructional Designer

Email the GSI Teaching & Resource Center

Send an email question to [email protected]

These selected resources from Graduate Division and across campus may contain information relevant to GSIs as they prepare for the fall semester.*

GSIs:

Addressing GSI Concerns: Fall 2020 Instruction FAQ (Graduate Division)

GSI Academic Appointments, COVID-19 Information (Graduate Division)

Students:

• Instruction FAQ for Students (Office of the Registrar)

• Student Technology Equity Program (STEP) (Technology)

 Instructors:

• Instruction FAQ for Instructors (Academic Senate)

• Remote Attendance and Participation (Center for Teaching & Learning)

• Keep Teaching website (Research, Teaching & Learning Services)

• Instruction Planning and Policy Report (Administration & Academic Senate)

*Keep in mind that some information included may be relevant to other audiences and/or controlled by another campus department.. Due to rapidly changing circumstances, some information may have more recently updates that have not been posted.