Office of Instructional Innovation

Strategies for Supporting Absent Students

With the increase in on-campus teaching and learning, we’d like to pass along some suggestions for negotiating student absences. We recommend that you continue maintaining flexible attendance policies and consider options other than lecture capture for students who miss class. Combining the use of student note-takers and a single five-minute video recording per class session, here’s an approach that’s quick, easy, and effective.

• Strategies for Supporting Absent Students
• Related: A Quick Panopto Tour

Created to help new (and current) instructors effectively prepare for their courses, this guide includes various resources related to policies, course preparation materials, instructional technologies, and more. The guide can be explored comprehensively or selectively as needed. Here is an outline of the content detailed in this guide: 

• Adding students to your course 
• Using Class Info Pages (CLIPS) 
• Supporting students with accommodations 
• Designing your syllabus 
• Reporting behavior concerns 
• Navigating Canvas 
• Using Zoom 
• Incorporating Panopto 
• Integrating Poll Everywhere  

The New Instructor Guide is available for any member of the UT-Austin community (e.g., professors, assistant instructors, teaching assistants). We especially encourage new instructors to check out the guide as they map out their courses. 

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Working groups provide opportunities for instructors to share successes and innovations, troubleshoot teaching challenges, and engage in a collaborative learning process to become even better teachers and users of educational technology. The groups are small, personalized to your interests, and typically meet once per month. Each group is facilitated by a staff member from the Office of Instructional Innovation. 

Contact OI2 to join.

Designed to prepare instructors to teach online and hybrid courses, this collection of 15-minute self-paced modules provides an excellent starting point for those who are new to these approaches. Topics covered include:

• Organizing Online Learning Experiences,
• Building Online Community,
• Presenting Information (Live) Effectively Online,
• Facilitating Discussion Online,
• Scaling Online Instruction, and
• Assessing Learning Online.

Camp OI2 is available for any member of the UT-Austin community. Participants receive virtual badges for the successful completion of each module.

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This podcast from the Office of Instructional Innovation covers teaching, learning, and innovation. Faculty experts share what it is like to conduct cutting-edge research, how an innovative course came into being, or what happens when they try a new teaching strategy for the first time.

The Digital Literacy Repository is a collection of resources for anyone interested in learning how to smartly navigate the digital age.

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