Please note: If a synchronous remote lecture or lecture video cannot be made, lecture materials such as PowerPoint presentations, Word and PDF documents, links, and other course materials can always be posted to Content within the course for students to review.
SOLE Discussion allows asynchronous communication between students and instructors and can be a useful way to incorporate student interaction and participation within an online course environment. Discussions can be graded via the Detailed Grader as well in order to contribute to students' overall grade.
Please visit SOLE Documentation to learn more about SOLE Discussions.
Additionally, you can download our Discussions Policy and Syllabus Examples document and/or our Course Netiquette Example for use within your course. Feel free to make any necessary edits to the policies to fit your individual course needs.
If your course requires student presentations, students can record a narrated PowerPoint, save it as an MP4, and then upload it to YouTube for easy sharing within the course.
If student presentations need to be shared with both the instructor and other students for review, then we recommend utilizing Discussions to share presentations. Students can share the YouTube link to their presentation or embed their video into their discussion reply for others to review and comment with feedback.
If student presentations need to be shared with only the instructor for review, then we recommend utilizing Assignments to share presentations. Students can share the YouTube link to their presentation or embed their video into their Assignment submission for the instructor.
Both options can be graded via the Detailed Grader as necessary.
Clear communication with students is an integral part of remote course delivery. It is important to clearly establish both virtual office hours and a policy on when and in what fashion responses will occur (e.g., within 24 hours). Chat sessions and web conferencing via Collaborate Ultra are available to facilitate live discussion or virtual office hours, while asynchronous tools such as SOLE's Mailing List and Discussion tool can also be used to disseminate information and allow students to post questions.
SOLE Chat allows for one-on-one, multiple users, or small group chats and could be a useful tool for real-time virtual office hours. Additionally, a Discussion board could be created so that students can post questions with the expectation that the instructor will respond within a set time period. Both of these tools allow for students to interact with each other as well so that they all receive timely information.
You may also choose to utilize the Mailing List tool to quickly send emails to students within the course as needed as well.
SOLE Exams can be utilized to deliver remote exams to students online securely using the SOLE LockDown Browser and Zoom.
Before delivering an exam, be sure to review any existing school / program related exam procedure policies. You may also consider an email to students regarding policy and procedure prior to each exam.
A combination of these items will aid in exam security.
Student Awareness
Students should also be made aware that exam logs exist and can be used to review and verify their activity within SOLE during the exam. Logs will show when the exam was launched, when each question was answered, and if the student accessed any pages or links outside of the exam while in progress. Additionally, they can only be logged into one iteration of SOLE at a time, so logging in on another device during an exam will kick them out of the exam and will be noted on the logs.
You may want to define a policy or process for reporting any technical issues. Requiring that students report any or all technical issues during an exam will help you to easily align any possible issues with their exam log in order to more accurately evaluate the situation.
There are Exam Troubleshooting techniques that a student can complete on their own to try and quickly resolve any technical issues that occur during an exam. However, students should contact SOLE support immediately if they are experiencing technical issues during an exam that they cannot diagnose or correct on their own. If a student loses time due to a technical issue, the exam has since been closed, or their time has run out, then they'll need to contact their instructor directly to request more time. SOLE Support cannot update or edit exam settings for students. SOLE Support can assist instructors in reviewing student exam logs as needed.
