Tools for Teaching and Learning at a Distance

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Getting Started

For a complete overview of how to sign in to Google Cassroom and begin setting up a new course site, see
Sign in and set up Classroom

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Create a new Classroom site for my course.

1. Go to: classroom.google.com. 
   You’ll have access to Classroom if you log in using your bard.edu “G Suite/Google Apps for Education” account.
2. If prompted, choose the “I am a Teacher” option to request Instructor access to Classroom. Once that has been approved, you will be able to create your own course sites.
3. Click the “+” (plus sign) in the upper right corner of the browser window, next to your username. Then choose: CREATE CLASS.
4. Add the Class Name/Title for your course. Consider following a consistent course naming structure, to later help you quickly identify past vs. current iterations of your course sites. 
   Example: FYSEM II - First Year Seminar II - Smith (S20)
5. Choose your Classroom Site Theme. In the upper right corner of your screen, click the SELECT THEME link. View available images from the gallery of provided themes. Click Select Class Theme to change the banner image for your course site. Alternatively, upload your own banner image by clicking on the UPLOAD PHOTO link.

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Post my syllabus, readings, lecture notes, etc.

1. Click on the CLASSWORK tab. Begin by adding course content here that you’d like students to be able to reference throughout the duration of your course, like your syllabus and core readings.
   1. Click on the + CREATE button.
   2. From the dropdown menu, select MATERIAL.
   3. In the new window, enter a TITLE for the file you are sharing (“Syllabus”), then
   4. Consider creating a TOPIC, such as “Syllabus” or “Readings”
      here, then assign the file(s) you are posting to that new topic. 
   5. Click the paperclip icon to attach a file from your computer; click the Drive icon to select a file in your Drive or Shared Drive; click the YouTube icon to share a YouTube video; or click the link icon to share a website url.

Note: you can add a maximum of 20 files per post. If you need to share your trove of 48 readings you may wish to arrange them thematically, using multiple posts. Also, when feasible, consider adding readings individually, that way you can reorder each reading as needed.
 

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Invite students (or another professor) to my Google Classroom site(s).

Add students to your site by entering their email addresses.

1. Go to your Classroom Site. Click the PEOPLE tab at the top right.
2. Click the INVITE STUDENTS icon.
3. Begin entering either a student’s name or their email address into the search box. This search box should search the bard.edu directory and autofill as you type. (It may also show non-bard email addresses from your own email contacts - ignore those!). Once found, click on the listing for the student that you’d searched for. This will add them to the invitation list.
4. When you’ve finished, click the Invite button.
5. You can also distribute the class code to your students, but it is more effective to invite them.

Add another instructor to your Classroom site.

1. Go to your Classroom Site. Click the PEOPLE tab at the top right.
2. Click the INVITE TEACHERS icon.
3. Start entering either a professor's name or their bard.edu email address into the search box. This search box should search the bard.edu directory and autofill as you type. (It may also show non-bard email addresses from your own email contacts - ignore those!).
4. Once found, click on the listing for the colleague that you’d searched for. This will add them to the invitation list. Then click the INVITE button.
   This will send an invitation by email to their bard.edu inbox.

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Send your first Announcement to your students with the Classroom “Stream.”

In Google Classroom, go to the Stream tab, click within the “Share something with your class” text box at the top.

Use this to type a message, quickly share updates, files, videos and weblinks with your entire class. Announcements shared here will be emailed to your students and will appear (in reverse chronological order) in the Stream tab.

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Email one or more students.

To email an individual student:

1. Go to your Classroom Site. Click the PEOPLE tab at the top right.
2. Scroll down to the STUDENTS section, click on the three dots icon, to the right of the student's name and then select Email Student.

To email multiple students:

1. Go to your Classroom Site. Click the PEOPLE tab at the top right.
2. Scroll down to the STUDENTS section,
3. Click Actions > Email and use the check boxes next to students’ names to send a message to a group.

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Access My Courses

Here are three ways to view your Moodle Courses:

1. My Courses button - upper left corner of main Moodle page.
   Lists the current semester’s courses only.
2. Dashboard button - upper left corner of main Moodle page.
   Then click Courses tab > this filters courses into Past, Current and Future course category lists.
3. My Profile - dropdown menu upper right corner of all Moodle pages.
   Look under Course Details - this will list all of your courses in reverse chronological order - from most to least recent.

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Turn Editing On to Begin to Add Content to Your Course Site

1. Log in to Bard Moodle and navigate to your course site.
2. Click on the GEAR ICON in the top right corner of your course site.
3. From the dropdown menu, click Turn editing on.
4. You will now see an Add an Activity or Resource link in each block of the main content section of your page. 
5. The Add an Activity or Resource link will open a menu that will allow you to add one of several resource types. All options are listed in that window with a brief description.

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Post My Syllabus, Readings, Lecture Notes, Etc.

There are two ways to add files to your course page, after TURNING EDITING ON:

Method #1 is quick: Simply drag and drop a file from your computer desktop onto your Moodle page. Or, drag and drop a zipped/compressed folder to your Moodle page. It will convert that zipped folder to a Moodle folder.

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Send Email to My Students

Use Moodle QuickMail - you will see the QuickMail block on the right side of your Moodle course pages. Quickmail offers a ‘send-only’ interface, which means that when you send a Quickmail through Moodle, it will arrive in the recipient’s email inbox.

1. In the Quickmail block, click Compose New Email. The Quickmail Email page will open.
2. Add individual names to the Selected Recipients list. To include all course members as recipients, click Add All.
3. Compose your message, add attachments and click Send.

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Google Meet or Blue Jeans

Use the recording and share desktop features in Google Meet or Bard Blue Jeans to pre-record lectures and presentations. Links to these recorded lectures can then be shared to your Moodle or Google Classroom course sites by adding a Link (with the recording url) to your course page. (Look for instructions for doing so to be posted here shortly.)

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Apple MacOS

You can record your screen and voice using Apple QuickTime.
Then, share your screen recording back to your students by adding it to our Moodle or Google Classroom site.
View step-by-step instructions from Apple.
 

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Microsoft Windows

You can record your Windows screen, or a portion of it, as well as your voice with Microsoft PowerPoint.
Then, share your screen recording back to your students by adding it to our Moodle or Google Classroom site.
View step-by-step instructions from Microsoft.

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Create Announcements

In Google Classroom, go to the Stream tab, click within the “Share something with your class” text box at the top.

Use this to type a message, quickly share updates, files, videos and weblinks with your entire class. Announcements shared here will be emailed to your students and will appear (in reverse chronological order) in the Stream tab.

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Set Up Discussion Boards

Set up one or more Discussion Boards (using the Question activity):

1. Go to the CLASSWORK tab.
2. Click the + CREATE button in the top left-hand corner of the page and choose Create Question.

This option can be used in a few different ways:

Choose MULTIPLE CHOICE to survey the class or ask your students a quick multiple choice question. Use the toggle to determine if Students can see class summary. 

If you select SHORT ANSWER, it functions much like a simple Discussion Forum on other learning management systems. Post a reading here and collect student reading responses. Use the toggle to determine if Students can reply to each other.

Note that students will not be able to see other students’ responses until they first post their own. For this reason, you may wish to consider turning off the option that would allow students to edit their posts.

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Create Assignments

Consider creating Assignments to collect student paper submissions (you can attach rubrics and guidelines here for students to reference), to administer a quiz or a survey (that you’ve created using a Google Forms), or to assign a collaborative writing project (using a shared Google Doc). You have the option to attach supporting materials—documents, links, images—to any of your Assignments. (Instructions forthcoming.)

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Student Submissions

Depending upon the type of Google Classroom Assignment that you create, students will have the following submission options: 

ADD: they can upload a file from their Drive, submit a link, or submit a file attachment. 
CREATE: they can submit a new file that they create (in their Drive) using another Google app: a document, (Docs), a Powerpoint-like presentation (Slides), or a spreadsheet (Sheets).

Once they’ve selected the file(s) they wish to turn in, they will then click the MARK AS DONE button.

Learn more about student assignment submissions in Google Classroom.

(Instructions forthcoming.)

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Create Quizzes

1. Go to the CLASSWORK tab.
2. Click the + CREATE button in the top left-hand corner of the page and choose Create Quiz assignment.
3. A new assignment and a Blank Form/Quiz will be created.

For complete instructions on setting up your Quizzes in Google Forms from within Google Classroom, please see:
https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/7627459?hl=en

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Manage Grades and Feedback

Go to your Google Classroom site (Classwork tab) and find the Assignment you need to grade. In the upper right corner of that assignment, click in the section that shows the number of Assignments DONE/NOT DONE. That will take you to the gradebook for that Assignment. 

At the top of the page you should see two tabs: INSTRUCTIONS and STUDENT WORK. Click on the STUDENT WORK tab. Here you will see a list of all of your enrolled students. You can sort this list by Last Name, First Name or Submission Status. Click on an individual student’s name to see their submission files, assign a grade, and/or leave private feedback. 

You can either grade all students’ work before returning grades, or you can grade and return grade/feedback as you go. To return all assignment grades at once, click the checkbox next to ALL STUDENTS, then click the RETURN button. Each student will receive an email notifying them of their grade/feedback.