The last few mornings have been a chilly reminder that winter is coming. With winter comes snow and the possibility of snow days. Early predictions about this winter’s weather vary from NOAA predicting a warmer and wetter winter to Old Farmer’s Almanac predicting a colder and snowier winter. Local forecasters are suggesting a milder early winter with significant snowfalls later in the winter.

In any event, it’s probably a good thing to be prepared for the possibility of snow days or other events that might mean canceling class. If you are using Blackboard to support your course you already have a head start.

Depending on how you teach, how you  prepare will be different. Classes that are more discussion based can transition to online discussions either through the Blackboard Discussion Board tool or using VoiceThread or Piazza discussion tools. More lecture focused classes might be replaced with recorded lectures using either open educational resources (think YouTube, TedTalks, iTunesU content) or by recording your own content.

Blackboard is presenting a webinar on December 1st 11 AM – Noon EST discussing how to use Blackboard to avoid missing class. To register for that session go to Coursesites.com and register.

LIT will also present an online training during December and into January where we’ll discuss some strategies to shift some class sessions online and some of the tools you have available to help you. Watch for announcements.