Find strategies and instructions for facilitating class-wide discussions and sharing other communications online to keep everyone connected.
Enable Class Discussions | Share Information | Set Up Office Hours
Enable Class Discussions
Interactive discussion topics for students can be set up in your Canvas course. You can create graded or ungraded discussion boards where students can post, read other responses, and reply.
Set up discussion boards in Canvas
Follow UBC how-to instructions
Dive deeper with UBC resources
- Design for student-to-student interaction with guidance from the UBC Online Teaching Program.
- Find other discussion tools supported at UBC for facilitating synchronous and asynchronous conversations.
Tip:
Explore more about Canvas and read answers to FAQs in UBC’s Canvas instructor guide » and UBC’s Canvas student guide »
Share Information
One of the fastest ways to reach all students in a course is using announcements in Canvas. Alternatively, you can message students through the Canvas Inbox, which is like a personal email tool within Canvas.
Send messages through Canvas
Follow UBC how-to instructions
Dive deeper with UBC resources
- Consider your teaching presence in how you communicate with guidance from the UBC Online Teaching Program.
Tip:
You can also email students through the UBC Faculty Service Centre (FSC). Emailing through the FSC is good for academic communications requiring an official paper trail or if you don’t want to depend on Canvas.
Set Up Office Hours
Zoom is a video/audio web-conferencing and collaboration tool that lets you meet with students in real time. You can use it to host virtual office hours to meet with individuals or groups of students.
Schedule & run a virtual office with Zoom
Follow UBC how-to instructions
Dive deeper with UBC resources
- Engage with students online using tips in the UBC “Introduction to Teaching Online” course.
Tip:
Explore more about Zoom and read answers to FAQs in UBC’s Zoom instructor guide » and UBC’s Zoom student guide »
Get support with learning technology
Contact the UBC Learning Technology Hub for hands-on assistance:
604 827 4775 | LT.hub@ubc.ca | Live Weekday Support »