Z.O.M.B.I.E. Survival Guide for VCUarts

(Zoom + Other Multimedia Basics for Instruction and Education)

This is a care-informed approach for a rapid transition to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a work in progress (currently around 99.9% complete), and an “unofficial” guide for arts faculty at VCU. Derived from VCU's Keep on Teaching, this guide includes arts-specific pedagogical strategies and discipline-focused resources. It also covers guidance on accessibility and FERPA. A backpack for the wild, wild Web.

OTHER IMPORTANT GUIDES: COVID-19 Richmond VA Resources / Resources for Artists in Richmond

GO STRAIGHT TO GUIDE OVERVIEW (Or click the  icon in the top left corner)

>>>>>UPDATE: ZOMBIE Guide 2.0 for the fall (and beyond)<<<<< https://sites.google.com/vcu.edu/zombie/ (also a living document)

For folks from other institutions: Welcome! This document is released under a Creative Commons 0 license. Feel free to copy-paste-remix-share-steal, whatever y’all need. There are things you will need to adapt to your specific institution (like Canvas vs Blackboard, or Zoom vs. Echo 360, etc). Please share with anyone who needs this.

A note to my dear VCUarts faculty family (especially adjuncts):

You are not going to become an online education expert overnight. Give yourself permission to be bad at this, and be kind to yourself. You’re responding to a medical pandemic, you cannot and should not be expected to create a seamless transition online. Do the best what you can, with the tools you have. That is more than enough.

If anyone has concerns or questions about teaching technology (with technology),  I am also available to you as the Multimedia Teaching & Learning Librarian at VCU Libraries. <3

With love and in solidarity,

Oscar Keyes (keyesok@vcu.edu)

VCU Arts Faculty Resources:

For those of you struggling to adapt a site-specific tool or resource, please contact Online/ALTLab as they have staff standing by to help with difficult course transitions.  

From James Wiznerowicz: For VCU School of the Arts accreditation questions please start with me (jpwiznerowic@vcu.edu) as I am the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of the Arts. I can support or direct questions to the Provost's Office.

From Kim Case: Department Chairs and faculty, if you are concerned about fitting everything into the remaining weeks of the term, please know that you are not expected to translate your precise face-to-face syllabus into a virtual format. Director of Faculty Success, Kim Case, suggests focusing on two main learning outcome goals you have for this semester that can be met within our new virtual world. Allow yourself to think in terms of how to shift creatively in ways that may require you to let go of that perfect plan you had in place. We are strongly encouraging flexibility coupled with high structure for students to reduce their anxiety. Kim Case is available for consultation to talk through some of these challenges. Email casek3@vcu.edu to set up a call or Zoom chat. You can do this!

Overview:

• Where to start? [[as good as it will get for now]]

• Communicating with students (and FERPA protections)
• Adapting curriculum online (with the least amount of stress)
• Creating online content (and notes for ADA-compliance)
• Teaching remotely for the first time (and being realistic)  

• How to teach art remotely (in a pandemic!)? [[as good as it will get for now]]

• Managing expectations for students (and yourself)  
• Regarding projects already in progress 
• Helping students with online documentation
• Facilitating critique/discussion online (and keeping social connection)
• Using available online resources (and making them meaningful)
• Creating online learning objects (that are actually helpful)

• What are things we can do and make at a distance? [[full draft, always adding]]

• Digital-based practices (Adobe Access / Alternatives)
• Material-based practices (Alternative Methods)
• Group-based practices (Adapting from Group to Solo / Collaborating Online)
• Performance-based practices (Solo / Home Recording)
• Research-based practices (Upperclassmen / Graduate Students)
• Discipline-specific resources [[reorganizing content to make more sense]]

• Other Resources [[please share/add/comment!]]

• Index of all other VCU departments resources (please add!)
• A curated list of posts, tweets, etc. (maybe?)
• A curated list of tutorials, guides, videos. (maybe?)

Where to Start?

Communicating with Students

• Contact your students now if you haven’t already. Reach out to them via email or Blackboard and let them know you’re thinking about them. You don’t have to have a plan, yet. Just hearing from you will be enough for now.
• Invite them to share if they have any technology limitations, restrictions, or concerns. I wouldn’t even bother with a survey, go ahead and assume that you’re building a course for mobile-users and/or under-powered computers.
• Remember, your class is probably not a top priority anymore. There is a pandemic happening outside. Be patient and flexible with students who are slow to respond.
• Keep in mind that for some students, going “home” is not a break, and in some cases may be more stressful and potentially dangerous than being at school. Don’t make assumptions about students’ engagement during this transition.
• In addition, we should also anticipate that many families (both our own and our students) will be impacted by this health crisis. Leave space for grief, anxiety, mourning, and be sure to direct students to campus resources as soon as you are alerted to developments in their lives. If your own life is impacted, communicate with leadership so you can transition responsibilities and prioritize your needs as well.

  ---

Online Learning Terms You’ll Hear Too Much Over the Next Month and a Half

Recommendation: A hybrid-ish approach to online instruction.

• Many of our programs are designed as cohorts, so it may be worth trying to create an opportunity for everyone to see each other (if possible). Even if it’s just a 30 minute social check-in once a week, just to see how everyone is. It is worth noting that this synchronous meeting should always be optional.

• I use a check-in activity called Rose, Thorn, Bud. Everyone takes turns sharing something good (rose), something difficult (thorn), and something hopeful (bud), that’s happened since the last time we saw each other.

• All studio-related work or instructional materials should be done and/or delivered asynchronously (meaning it can be completed or reviewed at any time) so students can access those resources/assignments as their schedule permits.
• Allow small groups to meet on their own time as their schedules permit.
• Make yourself available during the original class time as online office hours.
• Encourage students to create their own group chat outside of class to stay connected with each other throughout the semester (this is a space for them only).

Special notes for non-university supported applications (yes, I mean, Slack):

• NOTE:  Slack has not been approved for FERPA data. Please do not post any FERPA/confidential data to the site. This means grades, student information (such as their names?!), and even feedback on a project that could be traced back to a specific student would violate these protections.

• FERPA is a practice to support student's rights. It is not necessarily a platform or prepackaged software. Always be mindful of your actions and manner in which you share information with individuals or groups.

• Introducing a new tool on top of the ones that they’re already expected to use for their other classes is going to be a challenge.
• If you do choose to use a non-university supported tool, try to create consistency across your department about how you’re using that platform to reduce confusion.

The recommended best practice for rapid online transition is to continue what you’ve been doing, be it Blackboard, Gmail/Drive, or Google Classroom. However, there are a few notes to consider when using these tools.

Recommendations for online tools in your class:

• Post Announcements on Blackboard (or Google Classroom) as it will create an archive of communications. Updates will get lost in email, and most students' inboxes are a disaster anyway.
• If you meet as a class, use Zoom (Getting Started Guide) , as that’s going to be the most common tool used across the university and will create some consistency.
• Use the Google Hangouts Chat messenger for your office hours. Students are more likely to message you first rather than want to jump into a video chat. It also lets you quickly move into a one-on-one video call if you need to.
• Update your students’ names in Gmail and share with them how to do so, too.
• Google Drive seems to be the most common submission tool for most arts faculty; therefore, I am recommending it here. I’ve also included some tips for helping it not become a disorganized mess. *** Question

Adapting curriculum online (in a pandemic!)

I feel I cannot stress this enough. We are responding to a global crisis. Everything you do from this point on is already exceptional and beyond the call of duty. This part of the guide walks you through a couple of practical steps for adapting your course online.

Before we jump into strategies, however, I wanted to take a step back and refocus this conversation from a perspective of continuing instruction. The unspoken and often unnamed element of our classes is social interaction. As artists, we talk, we share, we give feedback, we take criticism, we grow through other people engaging with our work. The core to our classes, whether we realize it or not, is often the community aspect.

So before we break all of our classes into online modules and never see each other again, let’s regroup and remember what we took from our classes in college. For me it was the incredible friendships I made through sharing and working on things together.

Making art together is one of the best ways to build community, and community is crucial in a crisis. So please, focus your energies on building connections where you can between your students. We can facilitate them staying socially engaged, and if that’s the only thing they gain from the rest of our class, then that alone is worth it.

A few key points:

• Scale back assignments as much as you can while still meeting core objectives. For example, a narrative filmmaking project might need to scale the project back to a slideshow of hand-drawn and/or photo-based storyboards.
• Revise group projects, either in the form of turning them into solo projects or creating a way for students to collaborate that doesn’t require them to meet at the same time.
• Incorporate the use of found objects and media, and reframe your projects from the perspective of what is available in a house (with no studio or tools).
• Plan for alternative assignments. It might not be possible to find a project that fits the needs of all your students’ situations. Ask them what’s possible/manageable.
• Grade for completion, and break into smaller parts. I’m serious—if your students get any work done during this period, that’s more than enough to warrant an A.
• Be flexible in cases where students cannot get work done.

• The VCU withdrawal date has been moved to April 30. 
• Incompletes: Students may find that circumstances beyond their control prevent them from meeting course requirements by the end of the semester. In these cases, a student may request the instructor to assign the mark of I for that semester. The awarding of a mark of I requires an agreement between instructor and student as to when and how the course will be completed. Once the agreement is reached, the instructor fills out an incomplete grade assignment form bearing the student’s signature, and the form is submitted instead of a final course grade. The deadline for issuing a grade of I is April 30, 2020.
• From the Office of the Provost: During the spring 2020 semester students will have the option to choose between receiving standard letter grades or receiving the Pass/Fail grade option. Click here for details on the new Pass/Fail grade option. Both graduate and undergraduate students will have until Friday, May 15, 2020 to make their decision.

Figuring out what to do:

What were you planning to do? (Learning Objectives)

• What were the technical, conceptual, and/or professional skills left to teach?
• Can these skills be taught through alternative methods, experiences, or adaptations?
• If a skill is tied to a specific on-campus resource, your department will need to discuss how a technical skill might be understood through different means.

• Is there an alternative process that is linked in some way to the tool? Can this alternative method be conceptually connected to the process lost?
• This can be supplemented with other learning materials, such as videos, artist interviews, or even a recorded demonstration of you doing the process.  

What skills have they learned so far? (Current Assessment)

• Midterms just happened, what is everyone’s standing?
• List out the skills they’ve learned in terms of technical, conceptual, and professional.
• Compare with the original course objectives of your class. Even if not at the level you hoped, have you met the bare minimum of certain skills? If yes, good enough.
• What do your students currently know how to do? And what might those skills enable those them to do at a distance?

What can y’all do together next? (Revised Goals)

• Let go of what you thought you were going to do for the rest of the semester and imagine one new project for the rest of the semester. What would it be?
• Ask your students what they’d like to learn about and what they’re curious about.
• Students will be more engaged with a project they help design. You can connect most learning objectives in the arts to nearly any process. (It’s probably the only advantage we have over other disciplines in this whole armageddon scenario).
• Break the project into smaller parts with clear expectations. This will help you check-in with students and focus your support on students who need it the most.
• Adjust expectations as you go. You’re teaching on the fly, and there is absolutely no shame in admitting that something didn’t work and change course.

Some ideas I was told were helpful:

• Historically, art gets weird when the world is in crisis (e.g., Dadaism), so lean into it. There are many ways to scaffold conceptually rich ideas into avant-garde techniques.
• Create as many opportunities for collaboration as you can through tools like collaborative drawing or collaborative collage in Google Slides.
• Collaboration can also take form in asynchronous ways, where students are working on different parts of the same project (e.g., Exquisite corpse).
• Be present to this moment. Art is a form of expression and a means of escape. Let it be what it needs to be for your students (and for you—please make something for yourself, too.)

A Special Note: Directions for how to handle final exhibitions/performances for senior/graduate students should come from university leadership. This is an accreditation issue and not your responsibility at this point in time. Push this labor further up the chain, and just worry about creating community for your class. I will update this section later on as NASAD and other accrediting bodies make recommendations.

Creating online content

• IMPORTANT NOTE: Videos of online instructional content must have captions (this does not extend to students making video-based work).
• Accessibility: There are a lot of ADA guidelines for online resources. Below, I have broken it down into Documents/Presentations and Video Recordings.
• More info:  Style of Writing / Captions / Alt-text / Meaningful Links / PDF Accessibility 

Teaching remotely for the first time (and being realistic)

I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve never transitioned to teaching online in the middle of a health pandemic. All I know for sure is this is nowhere near the same as a snow day. The global anxiety alone makes this something totally different.

What that first day online looks like for you will depend on a lot of things. The biggest factors mostly relate to your class size, the unique social dynamics of your class, your particular teaching style, and your students' access to technology. You control very few of these factors.

I’m afraid I have neither the research nor the life experience to shape a best practice for this scenario. So I’m just going to tell you what my game plan is:

Before we meet:

• I’m going to continue emailing them every few days and will send out a Zoom link with clear expectations that they are not required to attend and to let me know if they have any technology limitations that I need to know about.
• I’m going to communicate with them not to worry about the project that had been due after break, and I’ll tell them that we’ll figure that out later down the road. I’ll also tell them that the withdrawal date has been moved to the end of the semester.
  

When we meet:

• I’m not planning any instruction at all. I'm giving them a proposal of what the course could look like and those changes will be approved with class consensus.
• I’ve decided to embrace that it’s going to be weird and awkward and so very human. There’s going to be stress and connectivity issues. You’re going to be worried about the students who aren’t there, and so will their peers.
• I’m going to use “Rose, Thorn, Bud” to show them how to mute and unmute the mic on Zoom as well as a way to check in with them and see how everyone is doing.
• Then, I’ll let them know that I’d like this to be the weekly ritual for the start of class and ask them if that’s something they’d like, too.
• I’ll let them know that I will be available via Google Hangouts or Zoom during our original class time as online office hours and that whatever our next project is, I plan to break things into small parts and play it by ear as we move forward, together.
• I’ll communicate to them that I’ll be sending out a Google Form after class with a few questions, mostly to gauge what they’d find to be manageable at this point in the semester. If we have time, I might share some ideas I have about the class, but I doubt we’ll get there.
• And then I’m going to end class by telling them I already miss our big circle of swivel chairs and that I’m crushed I won’t get to see them in person for the rest of the semester but that I’m so glad they’re safe. To take care, wash their hands, and to let me know if there’s anything they're concerned about in regards to the class.

After we meet:

• I’m going to sit with their input and think thoughtfully about how best to adapt my class to their needs.
• And then I’ll start figuring the rest out, one day at a time.

How to teach art remotely (in a pandemic!)?

Managing expectations for students (and yourself)  

• This class will not be what it was. Tell your students that. Tell yourself that. Repeat.
• Projects that were in progress before transition will need to have their assessment revised from a skill evaluation to a completion grade. Meaning if it’s done, it’s good.
• Projects that were planned will need to be revised based on students’ needs.
• Realistically, there is probably time for one of the following:

• The development of one new conceptual project:

• Pro: Most likely is in closest alignment with your previous learning objectives and, when done correctly, could have a high level of student engagement (i.e., it could be fun and weird).
• Con: Figuring out what that new project is will take work, and it’s hard to let go of all the work we already put into our curriculum.

• The deeper continuation of a previous project:

• Pro: Students have familiarity with the material, and it can be easy to incorporate new skills into a longer running project.
• Con: This might not be possible because of access to resources. It might also be a project students didn’t like, so engagement could be low.

• A handful of small technically focused assignments:

• Pro: Each piece is manageable on it’s own.
• Con: Not necessarily developing those rich conceptual skills.

• You could also choose to create a menu of options through the end of the semester, where students have a variety of choices for different projects that might be possible in their homes but will still connect to the conceptual ideas of the project (Thank you to Hope Ginsburg and Lily Cox-Richard for this brilliant idea!).
• This class will be something different, and let students know you’ll figure out what those differences are together.

Recommendation:

• A lot of this will depend on if you’re working with technical, conceptual, research, or professional skills, as well as their progression in the program.
• My intuition is that a combination of small weekly assignments (as a check-in) with one new project (that they’ve had input in designing) will work well.
• Post the schedule for the weekly assignments as soon as possible so students can work ahead (or catch up) as they need to.
• Be flexible on the new project—it might need to change as the situation changes.

Regarding projects already in progress (need to revise/clean-up)

Reflection on their process thus far (and asking them what they had planned to do) will be super helpful for insight. However, I think building in time for them to talk to each other might be even more crucial, especially near the beginning of the transition. There is going to be a lot of grief and anxiety about projects they cared deeply about, and it’s important to leave space for that. I think this would be very important for students with senior or thesis shows.

My intuition has been to lean against the guidance about the importance of simply focusing on teaching content—I think, for those of us in the arts, it might also be that we need to "keep on talking" so that we can keep teaching. I think we need to keep fostering community even at a distance, and I think that making together can still be a great way to build community.

If the project was very near completion:

• Tell them that they are receiving full credit for the work already done and not to worry about grades.
• Ask students to turn in what they have with a reflection on the process and what they would have liked to have accomplished.
• Communicate that you are going to salvage one of the most important parts of the artistic process, which is critique.

• Approach critique as a "work-in-progress" and do it via critical friends.
• Have them turn in group notes as a completion grade.

• Give them guidance that this time together isn't just about the work but also their feelings.
• Give them permission to vent and be frustrated and to share with and care for one another.
• Invite them to share that feedback in their group reflection or not.

• If, for whatever reason, a student had not even started a project (I know we have some students who get inspired at the very last minute):

• Give them a short technical exercise alternative (that is in the spirit of that original project) that can be completed with materials available to them at home. I would recommend giving a very specific prompt to take some of the pressure off. I'd even make it fun as they'll be processing shame about not having something to show.
• Communicate with them that it is totally okay to not have anything right now.
• Let this assignment be due at any point down the road.
• I'd recommend submitting this along with a reflection (but only if it doesn't seem like too much).  

If a project was just started:

• Go ahead and cancel it. Tell them not to worry about the grade. And that you'll be figuring out something else together.
• Take a poll of what students would be most curious to do (it might even be a good idea to come up with three possible prompts).
• Reflect on what the core skills of that assignment were, and let them know to expect that the new project/assignment will still be related to that.

If a project was halfway done:

• Honor the work that had already gone into the process, and give everyone credit whether they started it or not.
• Ask for a reflection about what they were planning to do and what they have learned so far in the project.
• And then, I think it goes in three directions:

• Prototype: It is possible that you might want to have them present a simplified version of their idea (even if just a sketch).

• I'd have them share this in small groups.
• I’d also have them deliver a small group reflection.

• Pivot: Let the work already done be the "grounding" point, and then transition into something somewhat related either conceptually or technically (it really depends on what skills you were developing in this process).
• Pause: Just communicate that you're putting this project on hold for now and that maybe you'll do something with it near the end of the semester. But as of this moment, they can stop working on it. Let them know they’ll be starting from scratch to help manage expectations around next steps.

• I think in any of these scenarios, a version of critical friends would be helpful here as well. Although the focus might be more about them reflecting on what they think they do know or don't know. And what they'd like to learn more about?

If a project was a semester-long course: 

• Backdrop: Much of the language from the “halfway” section applies but perhaps on a grander scale. These courses are typically upper-level seminars with senior/graduate students. At this point in the semester, these projects are just starting to move from planning into production mode. Students are excited and anxious but are starting to play and experiment and see what’s possible. For most of them, the plan they had is simply not going to be possible.
• Documentation: It will be important to have students document the work done so far on these projects. Be it in the form of sketches, storyboards, renderings, rough choreography, sheet music, etc. Try to help them craft language that will help these works become usable for a portfolio.
• The Big Shift: Chances are you will have to make a big decision, and it’ll be important to have a few different options to bring to your students.

• Group projects like narrative short films and live stage theatre productions will simply not be possible the way they were intended. The key will be looking at your course objectives.

• For example, the goal of a narrative filmmaking course is to cover the whole production process from start to finish for one single project. This means that, actually, it’s important to start from the script and finish with the final film.
• An alternative that still meets these goals could be a short film created through found footage on a cell phone. It could play with genre or be autobiographical, but you would want to make sure that you’re starting with the script and still going through the whole process from start to finish.
• Scaling back to these smaller, solo projects will be very important. If you find that the new project is stressful down the road, I encourage you to adjust to meet students’ needs.

• Solo projects will vary widely, depending on the discipline and students’ personal access to resources. These will all have to be consulted on a case-by-case basis. Most likely the students working on these projects are upperclassmen or graduate students and will have to do a lot more of the heavy lifting to figure out their adaptation for working from home.

• The key will be to support them, brainstorm with them, encourage them, and find ways for them to create a project that can still be exhibited/performed online, documented, and used for a portfolio.
• The biggest part of your job will be helping them manage new expectations and troubleshoot the different challenges that will arise from their not having access to resources and their peers.
• Helping students develop a schedule and structure will be crucial.  
• It will be really important to hold synchronous meetings where they can all still talk to each other and to find ways of facilitating check-ins and critiques on their process.

Helping students with online documentation

Documentation is no longer an afterthought at the end of a project, but the way a project is submitted and viewed for critique. This is a huge shift. One top of this, students have lost access to either their departmental equipment or resources like The Workshop.

Basic Guidance:

• Students will be using their phones. Make it clear that critique will not be evaluated in any way based on the quality of the recordings or images.
• Communicate that the key component is clarity, can we tell what we’re looking at?
• Encourage students to focus on things they can control like composition, background distractions, and their use of available light.
• I’d recommend staging some example documentation and to establish clear guidelines for what you’re looking for. (Ex. Three images - one full and two detail)  

TIPS FOR RECORDING ON YOUR PHONE *** Update for arts

Use Google Slides to submit documentation through Blackboard/Google Forms.
I kid you not, this saved my life for teaching photography.

I will eventually make a little tutorial for this.

Facilitating critique/discussion online

Critique is more than feedback, it’s a social connection. Creating opportunities for students to meet and talk about what they’re making will help create community, even at a distance. Here are a few general guidelines:

• A large group synchronous critique is impossible (please don’t try). Remember, full class meetings at the same time should probably be social in nature and optional.
• The key here will be building in ways for feedback and reflection (whether they happen in real time via small groups or through asynchronous methods like submitting writing or video).
• Don’t expect students to be able to “present live” through video conference software, always have them submit things ahead of critique through a recorded video, document, or slides. Students who are connecting via mobile devices won’t be able to screen share.

Critique Methods: 

Below I include a couple of different strategies for critique. The big trick will be teaching students how to facilitate their own critique without you present. Giving clear guidelines for critique will be important since a lot of this will be happening without you present. These are the guidelines for critique that I use from my syllabus.

Synchron-ish (aka small groups of students meet together online in realtime, on their time)

• Critical Friends:

• Setup: Everyone discusses each other's work with the student artist included in the group. This provides immediate feedback and response.
• Deliverable: Group Notes, including the Artist Responses
• Suggestion: Create the Google Docs ahead of time, name the files something clear (i.e. critique_group1), and instructions for how you’d like to keep notes.

•  If you choose to make the groups, put the names at the top of the document.
• If you let them self select, put clear instructions in the Google Doc that say “put your names here.”
• Include guidelines in the document about what you’re looking for.
  

• Juried Responses:

• Setup: (Small groups, 3-4) Each group discusses works made by others, without the student artists present. Similar to how an actual juried exhibit would work.  Ex. Students A, B, and C would be the jury for D, E, and F.
• Deliverable: Group Notes + Artist Reflection (separate)
• Possible Second Round: Each jury member meets online with one of the artists (paired 1:1) to discuss the feedback. In this case the deliverable would be the juries original notes and then group notes from the one-on-one meeting.

• One-on-One Round Robin

• Students meet one-on-one with different students (three times should be more than enough).
• Leave about two weeks for these to happen (this is an estimate - I have no idea how this will work in practice).
• Students can do this through whatever communication means are available to them, but you might want to encourage a synchronous meeting, even if over Google Hangouts audio call.

Asynchronous Options

• Self Reflection

• Give clear prompts and questions for them to answer.
• You should outline what you’re looking for in a reflection, with clear questions:

• Where did you start in the process and where did it take you?
• What technical/conceptual skills you learned from this process?
• What are some

• Virtual Gallery with Comments

• Flickr (need to investigate).
• Even Google Drive!
• Create an unlisted Vimeo/YouTube Playlist with all their works. (They already all have YouTube accounts through their VCU email) .

Discussion Methods: (working on)

As always, let us first consider the wise words of Lynn Weber whenever facilitating discussion (thank you Courtnie Wolfgang for this resource!).

• Full class discussion: is going to be nearly impossible for any group over 10 (and even then it might still be impossible). However, there are a few strategies for facilitating discussion online:

• Discussion boards
• Pop-corn discussion

• keep in mind the limitations synchronicity, you cannot make a classwide discussion a requirement
• You could potentially split your class into half and set up different discussion days for the two groups.  

Small group discussion

• Video: Google Hangouts / Zoom
• Google Docs
• FlipGrid / VoiceThread

One-on-one discussion

Using available online resources (and making them meaningful)

First off, please for all that is good in the world, use as many online resources that already exist as possible. I would encourage your department leadership (aka not adjunct labor) to curate these resources.

• A list of solid online resources at VCU: LinkedIn Learning, Kanopy, …
• Curated resources at VCU Libraries by discipline:

• Visual Arts Research Guides
• Performing Arts Research Guides
• Questions? Ask your Arts Research Librarian Carla-Mae Crookendale @ cmcrookendale@vcu.edu

• Curated resources outside of VCU:

• Art Libraries Resources for Remote Teaching, Learning, & Research

• I would discourage you from doing a self-directed approach to using online resources, such as “go find three you like and send me the certificates.”
• To make these online resources meaningful to both the student’s skill development and your own assessment, I would encourage you to pick specific online resources and build smaller customized assignments around them.

Pair Online Screenings and Galleries with Written Reflections: 

• Curate a short list of online media and galleries to pull from, do not create a super overwhelming list of resources.
• Select a specific online resource (and possibly an even more specific work, artist, or exhibit within that resource) to create an assignment.
• This assignment could either be structured around a small reflection or a small making exercise with a few words for context. I have found that students like to make things as a form of reflection. I’ve attached an example of my weekly prompts and a student example here (thank you Payton Kester for permission).
• These could potentially make for great weekly assignments and ways for you to check-in how students are doing with regards to managing the transition.

Pair Online Tutorials and Guides with Custom Exercises: 

• Select a tutorial (or a series) and pair it with a more creative prompt.
• Example: You assign the LinkedIn Learning tutorial series for Audacity. You can then pair this module with students creating their own simple soundscape. Evaluating things students make is way more fun than checking off certificates anyway.
• Note: While comprehensive, many of these online tutorials are built from an industry perspective (or by a YouTube personality) and therefore sometimes a little flat in the creative inspiration department (or trying to sell you something…).
• Giving them a creative framework to apply and demonstrate their skills will lead to deeper learning and understanding of the tools they're working with and ultimately be a lot more fun and engaging.

Creating online learning objects (that are helpful)

A lot of you have techniques that you’ve developed in your own practice. Perhaps these were skills you had hoped to share with your students, or maybe you’re tired of all the annoying product placement in YouTube videos.

Handouts:

• Usually the most helpful and should always have a PDF version made available. (Obviously, I love Google Docs, but they use data to access. Once downloaded, PDFs can be used without wasting data, indefinitely).
• Comparatively, using videos on a mobile device can be really frustrating with having to pause, rewind and rewatch. Not to mention connectivity or data plan issues.
• The structure of a handout also allows students to move at their own pace, reread things they didn’t understand, as well as easily return back to the document.
• If the document is long (like this one), consider putting an index at the top and/or including headings for the outline. This will allow students on both mobile devices and computers to easily search through the document.
• If using screen captures, make sure the images are big enough that the text is the same size as the font used.
• If using documentation photos, make sure to use full and detailed views.

Slides:

• Keep it simple. Keep it clean. And possibly, even keep it fun.
• Don’t use too much text, and just two or three points per slide.
• Keep the font size around 22-26 for the smallest, remember they are going to be viewed on mobile devices. This will be important for them to see easily.
• When using images, always include a citation so students can follow up.
• Feel free to keep your presentation notes available for students to see.
• Accessibility-wise, make sure to be thoughtful about contrast between background and font color. This tool can help you check the contrast of colors. Looking at your slides and grayscale is a quick and easy tip as well.

Videos:

• So before you release the most amazing post-apocalyptic tutorial series ever, please consider that some of your students (especially those in rural areas) will not be able access either the internet speed nor necessarily have the data plan to watch this.
• If you’re going to record lectures or demonstrations, then break up the materials into smaller 3-5 minute videos.
• All materials that are essential to instruction, need to have captions/transcripts.  

• Zoom, Kaltura, YouTube.

• This guide covers some more tips for recording instructional materials.

What to do? ((Made a pass at all, but will keep adding))

Digital-based practices

Digital arts practices may be some of the easier ones to migrate to an online environment while also providing a potential alternative for some material-based practices that students have lost access to (e.g. 3D Modeling might become a substitute for sculpture).

Thanks to an effort from School of the Arts, Technology Services and the VCU Libraries, a limited two-month license for Adobe Creative Cloud is now available for free to all VCU students. (Spring 2020 Only)

This new license can be installed on unlimited personal devices, including tablets and smartphones, and gives you access to all Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

More information is available at adobe.vcu.edu 

Students can receive their licenses directly at: vcu.onthehub.com

Adobe’s web-based and mobile-based applications might be the best solutions for students at this time, and are included in the list below:

I’m currently making self-contained exercise-based guide for: Twine / OpenShot / Audacity

A long list of every tool I've found / Another long list of all my tutorials.

Design:

• Teaching Design ONLINE Resources

Media Arts/Film/Cinema:

• Found footage films
• Autobiographical films
• CABIN FEVER: Coping with COVID-19 playlist of online experimental films & videos
• http://anneswartzblog.org/teaching
• Resources for Media Production Classes
• Podcasting Resource Guide from Brown University
• Mobile Journalism Manual
• https://wp.vcu.edu/library-collections/2016/01/kanopy-video-streaming-service/

Need access to a film for your online class? We have devised a form to collect film needs outside of Kanopy. From this form, we can determine whether we have it, we know the distributor of educational rights, or we need to research this. This form allows us to simplify the workflow of rights research and assess the accessibility of the work.

• Access the form here: https://forms.gle/kMwYEaAeHSwViTGH6

Free Frame.io Enterprise plan for 90 days. Please email rapid-response@frame.io.”

-The Adobe video team has put together some Video resources that are now available. Please find links to our Working Remote Blogpost as well as a link to register for our Friday 3/20 (tomorrow) webinar on Enterprise Remote Work Tips and Workflows. Hopefully these are helpful to you and your Pro video teams during these unprecedented times.

ADOBE CREATIVE JAMS SCHEDULE

The Creative Jam series is a virtual workshop and experiential design challenge sponsored by Adobe and an industry partner. The schedule for upcoming events for you students is found here: https://www.creativejam.in/openjams/

A Creative Campus only event that VCU qualifies for is coming up on April 15 and runs for 1 week:
Theme: Civic Technology
Product Adobe XD
Kickoff Session Wednesday, April 15, 5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT
Presentation Session Wednesday, April 22, 5:00pm ET/2:00pm PT
Registration link https://cjam.in/campus

Material-based practices

Every single one of our disciplines is derived from some form of home-based craft, even virtual reality has its ties to early optical toys. Making artistic objects was an integral part of, building culture, creating joy, processing grief, developing rituals, and making home. For those working with material-based practices, the task ahead is to dig deep into those roots and find ways for your students to make without the spaces and resources that they have become used to in their studios. This section owes a great deal of thanks to Lily Cox-Richard who gave me a crash course into the challenges of material-based making over the phone.

Finding Ways to Make:

• Scale Shift: While the inclination might be to move toward a “think big, make small” model, there are ways for students to present their documentation to communicate the ideal scale of their projects. You could encourage students to either play with perspective in photography or to manipulate images of their models in Photoshop (or an alternative), such that the scale of the model is communicated. Keep in mind the execution of these scale shifts should not be evaluated in terms of “how well it’s edited” but rather if it is turned in.
• Researching Alternative Methods: Most of you know the roots of your various practices. Dig into those methods and try to backwards engineer these processes from things you find in your home. Below are a few that were crowdsourced:

• Photography/Video

• Best Manual Photo Apps for Androids
• Apps Editing Photos on Smartphones
• Building a camera obscura for your smartphone
• This Book is a Camera / Developing with coffee + baking soda / lightmeter app
• Making a Projector with your iPhone and Cardboard 

• Printmaking

• Gelatin Monoprint Plates
• http://printeresting.info/

• Space/Sculpture

• Salt Dough
• Safe papier mache: I like the cooked flour paste
• Antfarm Inflatocookbook
• Cut + Fold Templates

• Using Found Objects: What happens if students aren’t able to make anything with their own materials? Working with found media provides students an opportunity to work with the things they have directly available.

• Judith Scott, Mark Dion, Joseph Cornell, Sarah Sze, Tara Donovan, Ledelle Moe

• Materials from Nature: We are currently in a global pandemic and with (the most privileged of us) being able to burrow away from our homes, this might be a really important moment to reconnect with the materials that existed long before us, be it rocks, plants, animals, or even fungus. These were the first materials we used to make and they can serve us well now as well.
• Home Media as Ephemeral Media (idea inspired from Ephemeral Monuments)

• The temporality of objects is explored by many artists from all disciplines. But might be a helpful framing device for understanding works needing to be quickly created and destroyed.
• What would it mean to make sculptures that are designed to decay, photographs that are meant to fade, fabrics that are meant to fray?

Finding Space to Work

• Studio in a Box: Even if a student has access to materials and tools, storage is going to be one of the biggest issues for most.

• Design projects to fit in something around the size of a shoebox with a lid. Encourage students to store this box in a safe space and to not leave it in a shared area. Even a packaging box might work, but they would want to make sure they can secure the folded sides.
• Still put a drop cloth-like material inside the box so that you can have a larger area once you take something out of the box.

• Tiny Desk Model: If a student has access to their own space,

• Provide tips and strategies for keeping their desk organized and clean.
• Because of the potentially complex shared living space situations that might occur in your students’ lives, many rooms might serve multiple purposes now.
• It will be important to help students develop strategies for communicating the importance of using a space, like a kitchen table or living room.

Finding Tools to Do the Work  

• Collective Inventory: This technique crowdsourced ideas for possible tools that could be used for making.  A shared Google Doc is used and students are encouraged to share what they have in their homes and how they might be used. This is particularly useful as what occurs to one student might differ from another and they can inspire one another in sharing these ideas, with understanding that students have access to different tools/materials. Students can then create a personal inventory of tools/materials they do have access to and keep that list handy as a reminder when they get stuck. (Shared by Chelsea Lee, Art Foundations, VCU)
• Raid the Kitchen (With Care): Encourage students to look through the tools available in their kitchen drawers. Be sure to give guidance that these are shared resources and that they need to be cared for, especially if everyday use items. Some students might have access to sheds, but not all. I was told pumpkin carvers might be of particular interest for projects, as they are not used regularly.

Group-based practices 

This section owes a great deal to Jen Tarr (University of South Carolina), a dear mentor of mine from my undergrad/grad days. Nearly everything I know about teaching with kindness and compassion (and still guiding students to make solid work), I owe to her. We spoke for a while about ways to adapt group-based projects, especially the difficulties faced by groups (often good friends) who have been working together on a project for a whole semester that will no longer be possible to make. Below are the recommendations that we discussed together, made more general to apply across disciplines.

These will be some of the most difficult transitions to make, simply because group projects are often supported by on-campus resources in large ways. (e.g. cinema projects use cameras/lights, theatre uses the stage/scene shop, etc.). However, despite this, there are a few ways forward, each with pros and cons. In general these adaptations will largely depend on the level of student engagement and excitement about the idea. As with all of these larger, labor-of-love style projects, it will be important to build space for students to be disappointed and disheartened about the work that was lost. There will be grief in not seeing their ideas come to life, but your task will be to facilitate them to keep moving.

These adaptations will also depend on the learning objectives of the class. If collaboration is listed as a learning objective, then you will need to find a way for them to still collaborate.

Collaboration is not a learning objective:

• Scaleback to Solo Only

• This is the simplest scenario in terms of rollout, and most likely only applies to courses where the group-project was optional but something you wanted to accomplish.
• If collaboration is not essential to your course objectives, but an important value for you as a teacher, then that might be something to talk to your students about and get their opinion on, and see what they prefer/want.
• You could allow students to self-select if they want to be in a group or do the project separately in this case as well.

Collaboration is a learning objective:

• Asynchronous Collaboration

• I do this in my regular practice, but it is really useful for technical skills as each student gets to do their own individual deep dive into a process, but then they’re able to make a larger work because it’s collaborative.
• In each of these examples, a single student was responsible for their own individual assets and then as a group determined the editing of those pieces: Example 1 (Animation), Example 2 (Rotoscope), Example 3 (Stop Motion)
• These techniques could be applied across disciplines, be it developing different parts of choreography of the same dance, an exquisite corpse style drawing or collage, a song composed by each person laying down one track either after (sequential) or above (layered) the other.

• Synchron-ish Duets/Trios

• This is probably one of my favourite ideas, as it essentially gives everyone in the class a creative accountability partner for the rest of the semester.
• The goal here is twofold, to create space to collaborate and also to ward against social isolation.
• Give clear guidelines and prompts, perhaps even focusing on what is shared between spaces to help bridge the gaps in distance.

• New group project that is much, much smaller.

• Only do this option if you have total student agreement on it and it’s something they want.
• Give clear guidelines and strategies for expectations.
• Allow for lots of creative play with form and format.
• Make small parts of the projects due throughout the class, and use these as ways to check-in throughout the process. Do not be punitive if late, just be curious.
• It might be important to be flexible and allow for the projects to become solo if this doesn’t work out. The collaborative learning element will have been achieved in trying.

• A smaller solo project, paired with a simple (fun?) collaborative element.

• This might be the most practical option for accomplishing the collaborative learning objective of your course.
• Let the solo project handle the bulk of the conceptual skills, and distill a single technical skill that could be learned through a project that can be collaboratively assembled.
• In order to really emphasize the collaborative element, it’ll be important to incorporate as much discussion and student agency in how the assembly happens, even if you ultimately are the one that puts all the pieces together.

Guidelines for Collaborating Online: (need to add/revise)

• Use Running Meeting Notes, create Google Docs for your students with their names in them. Demonstrate how to put the most recent meeting notes at the top (to make it easier for you to grade).

• For example:

• Meeting 3
• Meeting 2
• Meeting 1

• Use Checkin-Ins, to help keep track of student progress

• Make small parts of the project due
• Consider holding “conferences” with groups to see how everything is going.

• Create Collaborative Doc/Slides for students to brainstorm
• Give activities and prompts that will facilitate them to talk to one another about what they’re making.
• Incorporate work-in-progress style critiques, when possible.
• Accountability Application - Focus Mate
• Jamboard is part of VCU's G Suite for Education's core services. Google Jamboard includes an online Whiteboard tool that allows multiple users to simultaneously create and share ideas from multiple devices, and this does not require the Jamboard hardware. Jamboard is available in the Google App Launcher (9 dots upper right) and from the App and Play Store for your mobile device. Additional features are available when using the Jamboard app on mobile devices such as the ability to insert Drive files.  Our page highlighting Jamboard provides additional details.

VPN - RamsVPN

• There are some online university resources that require use of the RamsVPN, before they can be accessed from off campus. Documentation is here on how to get setup: https://docs.google.com/document/u/2/d/1yBVeClUuRBkclLeR5RnqGj0nVfiOL2i_uocUqSCnPQc

Performance-based practices

For students in the performing arts, the loss of their space might have a huge impact on their mental health. However, the even bigger concern to contend with, will be the loss of connection with their peers, some of whom will have been working together for years. In addition, for many students, they’ve invested a semester, a year, or what feels like their entire life preparing for a show that was supposed to take place at the end of this semester. For students working on large scale productions, the loss of community in particular is going to be difficult. These students spend hours upon hours working together outside of your classes, this will be impossible to replace, and an important factor to consider.

To lose all of this with such little notice is going to be a shock, and there will need to be a great deal of compassion for helping them find themselves once the dust settles. They might feel hollow or like there’s not even a point in coming to a class online when there is no studio or stage. Your task will be in moving from the reality of losing an old physical space they knew (and probably loved) to the possibility of a new virtual space they have never known. There is no way this transition will be possible immediately. In fact, I imagine there will be a mourning process with the loss of these opportunities to share their hard work with their peers, their mentors, and their loved ones. It will be important to create space for this loss, but also it will become even more important to keep them connected.

In speaking with my dear friend, Robyn Hunt (University of South Carolina), we spoke about the immediate needs of students who found themselves in these circumstances, and have the following guidance to offer:

1. Find a way to honor the work done thus far:

• For large and small scale productions, consider creating an online archive of students designs, schematics, propwork, etc.

• You could potentially have them collaborate in building the site together to create opportunities for interactions.
• You could assign them to do audio/video interviews with one another to host on the site.
• Find ways to help them salvage elements that might still work for their portfolios in the future.

• For solo performances, your student might still be able to produce a minimalist version of their piece, or take a new direction entirely. They will have the most flexibility in this scenario.
• In the event of the show not being able to go on, consider doing some kind of observance for the death of this production. Honor the time, energy, and love that went into this by talking by doing something to memorialize the show that could have been.

2. Find a way for them to move, again.

• This beautifully written piece by Hope Ginsburg - Teaching Live Art Not Live
• Reintroducing routines is going to be key in helping these students reorient to their courses. Small, structured exercises will help build them back up. Make this simple and lighthearted when possible.
• Help them schedule practice times. They won’t all be able to happen at the same time anymore, but create ways for accountability. They could turn in short practice videos/photos and have them keep a log how much they’re practicing. Provide the structure in terms of clear practice exercises, and vary the techniques from week to week.
• Bring them back into their bodies. Incorporate meditative practice and focusing techniques into movement work. Help them develop skills that will help them channel the noise of the world around them and redirect it.
• Make them laugh. We’re living in strange times, and comedy is often our best tool for coping with this. Build as much opportunity for humor into your class as you can, even if just short improvised exercises (e.g. assign silly dances, clown faces, covers of Rick Astley, etc.)

3. Find a way for them to connect to an audience. Once the dust has settled, and there’s a sense of a direction, the hardest part of your job will be figuring out how to help them move towards a new goal. Place-based performance is going to be the method for creating, but the means of sharing will be another task entirely.

• Home as place-based practice

• Home has inspired us with dreams and nightmares, with feelings of peace and entrapment, it might be a place of great love or great strife. Returning home (or being unable to return home) will become a big part of adjusting to the reality of our times. Create opportunities for them to explore these spaces and these feelings to help them adjust and settle into an old/new place.

• What would it mean to create a play for your mother? Your cat? The tea pot about to go off? The neighbor next door you’ve never talked to?
• Do you remember when you used to dance in the living room? Isn’t your room where you danced when no one was looking?
• What does your home sound like? What songs can it inspire?

• Collaborations across time and space

• While the loss of meeting together at the same time in the same place is difficult, it does also open a new space for us to explore in terms of creating performance. We can choose to lean into this. We can find, fight, and force our ways to connect to another, even at a distance.
• Robyn suggested the idea of a movement-focused exploration of home, by having students choose different spaces within the house and creating tiny dances/movements that were both inspired by the architecture and filmed in the spaces. Then assembling them all together into a performance that was “home.”

• Live Streaming 

• While you can’t require students to meet synchronously, they can still deliver live performances across the Internet.
• YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch are all free streaming services. OBS is a free program that can connect a camera to a live broadcast.
• Creating a simple website (through something like rampages) will allow you to embed multiple streams into one page and they can be shared simultaneously.
• You can also use online gaming apps like roll20, to take advantage of their live streaming capabilities.
• And much like they often doing lots of work outside of the hours of the course, your students might elect to start organizing a simulcast livestream (where they all perform live together).

• Recordings

• Radio Play / Voiceover

• If it really is the end of the world, why not War of the Worlds it? Assign Nightvale and other creative podcasts or classic radio plays.
• Have students create characters and scripts for these strange worlds.
• Teach them how to record audio on their phones and you can stitch their stories together into a final production.

• Solo Performances

• Examples of performances taking place in homes:

• The album Constance by The Restoration was specifically recorded in a home setting rather than a studio to add textural reverberations.

• View performances virtually:

• An ever-growing list of organizations that are offering free online visual and performing arts experiences via the Modlin Center: https://modlin.richmond.edu/virtual-arts.html 

Below are some discipline-specific resources that have been curated as a jumping off point.

Media Arts/Film/Cinema:

• Found footage films
• Autobiographical films
• http://anneswartzblog.org/teaching
• Resources for Media Production Classes
• Podcasting Resource Guide from Brown University
• Mobile Journalism Manual
• https://wp.vcu.edu/library-collections/2016/01/kanopy-video-streaming-service/

Need access to a film for your online class? We have devised a form to collect film needs outside of Kanopy. From this form, we can determine whether we have it, we know the distributor of educational rights, or we need to research this. This form allows us to simplify the workflow of rights research and assess the accessibility of the work.

• Access the form here: https://forms.gle/kMwYEaAeHSwViTGH6

Free Frame.io Enterprise plan for 90 days. Please email rapid-response@frame.io.”

Dance:

Three freely available resources are Jacob's Pillow Dance, Dance Tech, and UbuWeb Dance. Though not performances, I also use Motion Bank and Accelerated Motion. If you have funding or want to take advantage of their offer of free streaming until the end of April, ontheboards.tv looks promising (I don't have access).

There are instructors offering streaming dance practices and recordings for free through instagram.

Ballet

• Friday, 7-9pm // The Ballet Clinic // @aballeteducation (this live stream took place today but they will save the video to their page!)
• Saturday, time: TBA // International City School of Ballet //@icsb_ballet
• Monday, time: TBA // Elite Classical Coaching // @eliteclassicalcoaching
• Tuesday, time: TBA  // Cary Ballet // @caryballet

Contemporary

• Monday, 4pm // Teddy Tedholm // @teddytedholm

Industry Seminars

• dates: TBA, 12pm // CDI // @commercialdanceintensive

Music:

• A comprehensive guide for recording better audio on your phone.
• Free Minimoog Model D Synthesizer for iPad or iPhone
• Free Korg iKaossilator for iPad and iPhone

Theatre:

• Radio Play / Voiceover

• If it really is the end of the world, why not War of the Worlds it? Assign Nightvale and other creative podcasts or classic radio plays.
• Have students create characters and scripts for these strange worlds.
• Teach them how to record audio on their phones and you can stitch their stories together into a final production.

• Continue to have them create and/or develop characters. Here is a list of questions that you can provide them with to dive deeper.
• A meditative exercise for focusing one’s self. 
• I’m unsure how copyright with plays work, but if anyone has a large collection of ones in the public domain, let me know.

Research-based practices

• More focus on Professional Practice resources (Work on grant applications, Residency applications, Artist statements)

• There’s going to be a rise in virtual artist residencies hopefully, so this might be a way to help support students during this time as well.

• Focusing on techniques/methods for research-based projects
• Resources: (to be added to)

• https://guides.library.vcu.edu/performing-arts 
• https://guides.library.vcu.edu/visual-arts 

Other resources

Index of other VCU Department Resources

If you haven’t already, please condense all of the resources you’ve accumulated and into a single Google Doc. Then free to post the link to your shared faculty resource here.