At a Glance

In-person and remote teaching both offer lots of opportunities to engage students in rich learning experiences. Explore this guide to learn about how you can adapt between in-person and remote teaching approaches to different classroom activities.

1. Presentations & Lectures

Deliver a successful lecture with all its components (writing on the board, taking notes, etc.) in-person or remotely.

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
You or a guest speaker present or deliver a lecture to students.
Write/take notes on the board.
Display content via a document camera. Use your phone’s camera and any writing surface via Zoom.
Annotate over prepared content (e.g. a PPT). Use an iPad to annotate via Zoom over a PPT, PDF, & more.

2. Group/Team Work

Facilitate student-centered learning through group projects, case discussions, small-group work, or in-class presentations.

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
Facilitate team projects, case discussions, small-group work, and/or in-class presentations. Canvas can make group (team) work easier. Using Canvas Groups, you can provide sub-sites for groups to collaborate and assign/grade group work.
Allow students to work in small groups (e.g. to discuss a case). Break students into virtual groups using Zoom breakout rooms. If your students are in different time zones, consider grouping students together by zone so they can meet together via Zoom for live discussion.
Students give a presentation to the class. Students present to the class via Zoom. They can share their audio/video, screen, and more using standard Zoom functionality.

Tip: Use class time on Zoom to facilitate live (synchronous) discussions. Use Canvas discussion boards for discussions/questions before and after class.

3. Teach with Cases

Adapt between in-person and remote teaching approaches to facilitating case-based learning.

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
Discuss a case that students reviewed before coming to class.

4. Take the Pulse of Your Classroom

Check for understanding or gauge student reaction (e.g. show of hands or real-time polling).

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
  • Do a hand-raising poll in which you ask students, “Raise your hand if…”
  • Use Poll Everywhere to deliver a multiple choice, word cloud, open-ended, clickable image, ranking, Q&A, or other type of poll.
  • Ask students to raise their virtual hand in Zoom.
  • Use Zoom Polling to deliver a multiple choice poll.
  • Use Poll Everywhere to deliver a multiple choice, word cloud, open-ended, clickable image, ranking, Q&A, or other type of poll.
Assign a practice problem so that students can self-check for understanding. Assign low-stakes Canvas quizzes (e.g., quizzes that don’t count towards students’ final grade).
Connect with students who may be struggling in your course. Use the Message students who… feature in Canvas to send targeted messaging to students who missed an assignment, earned a low score, etc.

5. Teach with Video

Use video or video clips to support your teaching.

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
Share a video live during class. Share a video during your Zoom meeting.

6. Distribute Class Materials

Provide students with course materials at a specific date & time (e.g. during class).

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
Distribute materials/handouts in class because it’s timely or in order to limit students from engaging with content ahead of time. Set content to become available in Canvas at a specific date & time.

7. Assign, Collect, and Grade work

Encourage & measure learning by assigning problem sets, short essays, papers, or multimedia (e.g. video) deliverables for a grade.

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
Distribute written assessments. Use Canvas assignments to create individual or group assignments.
Grade written assessments. Use Canvas SpeedGrader to review and grade assignments.

8. Assess Learning

Assess student comprehension through quizzes and exams, peer-to-peer evaluation (individual or team), etc.

In-Person Teaching Approach Remote Teaching Approach
Administer a quiz or exam. Create and assign a quiz in Canvas Quizzes.
Assign peer review on an assignment. Set an assignment to include peer review in Canvas.
Use Canvas to administer an exam. To learn more, see the self-paced course How to Create a Virtual Exam.

Note: MIT Sloan does not support an exam proctoring tool at this time.

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