Best Practices

Distance & Remote Learning Resources

These resources will provide programs and instructors with guidance pertaining to planning for and delivering remote, virtual, and/or distance learning instruction.

• VALRC Distance Education Hub: An overview of distance education in Virginia, a list of approved curriculum, the curriculum submission form, assessment policy, and more!
• Open Educational Resources
  • OER Commons: Searchable collection of OER to support teaching and learning needs.
  • Edutopia: An educators’ guide to open educational resources with information about online repositories, curriculum-sharing websites, and sources for lesson plans and activities.
  • OER - Open Educational Resources: Big List of Resources: A collection of resources that include completed courses material, material broken down by subject, and resources for images, books, and multimedia, and much more.
  • Introduction to Open Educational Resources: Self-paced online course on using OER (EdTech)
• Flipped Classroom Resources: Flipping the Classroom: These resources provide strategies and tools that are used to design a flipped classroom for remote learning. Flipping the classroom is a common strategy to provide students with content prior to a class session in order to allow for more learning activities and student engagement during the classses.
  • Ready to Flip: Three Ways to Hold Students Accountable for Pre-Class Work: Article that supplies good strategies to determine student engagement and motivating learners to complete pre-work.
  • How do we get students to complete pre-class work?: Article that provides theory to support creating stimulating pre-work enhancing student motivation.
  • Five Ways to Motivate Unprepared Students in the Flipped Classroom: Article that provides strategies for modeling pre-work and supporting less motivated students.
  • 10 Strategies to Encourage Students to Actually DO the Pre-Class Work in Flipped & Active Learning Classrooms: Resource that provides a more indepth process for motivating students to participate in the pre-work for a flipped classroom.
  • 4 Tools for a Flipped Classroom: Article that provides suggested tech tools for creating a flipped classroom. Most of these tools and others are highlighted in the Instructional Tools section of this website.
  • Making Your Flipped Classroom More Human: Article that provides strategies for engaging and retaining learners using a flipped classroom.
  • EdWeek report, Educators Evaluate "Flipped Classrooms": Resource that provides an evaluation of the flipped classroom as well as tips for successful implementation of the flipped classroom.
• CrowdEd Learning: Teacher Tools: An overview of the provided teacher tools and how to use them.
• ABE Distance Learning Resource Site: Resources for adult education programs to rapidly scale-up or start distance education programs.
• IDEAL Distance Education and Blended Learning Handbook: Resource that addresses both administrative and instructional issues which are at the core of blended and distance education.
• Resources for Transitioning to Online Learning: A regularly updated list of resources for teaching online that is directly sourced from LINCS.
• 8 Lessons Learned from Teaching Online: This video list of insights comes from experts in the field of online teaching.
• Distance Learning: A Gently Curated Collection of Resources for Teachers: A curated list of resources for distance learning that is organized into four categories―emotional and psychological factors of teaching online, the nuts and bolts of distance learning, general tips and advice from instructors in the field, and troubleshooting.
• Using Your Cell Phone for Instruction: A ProLiteracy blog explaining how to deliver instruction via cell phones.
• Organizational Tools for Virtual Teaching: A video in which an instructor models how to use organizational tools for online instruction.
• ReadWorks Webinar Series: Free webinar series which covers a variety of topics related to teaching remotely and online. All webinars are archived and can be watched at any time.
• An Educator’s Resource for Distance Learning, Remote Learning, and eLearning: An overview of a variety of tools that can be used for distance learning, remote learning, and eLearning.
• Khan Academy: Flexible Learning Toolkit: Toolkit that presents reports and resources to support programs transitioning between face-to-face and distance learning.
• Edmentum 2020-2021 Planning & Success Toolkit: Toolkit that provides free eLearning resources to assist with building and implementing an eLearning plan.
• OTAN YouTube Channel: YouTube channel created by the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network that serves adult education in California and contains a variety of YouTube videos related to teaching online and using online tools for instruction.
• Online/Remote Teaching PD Resources: A curated list of professional development resources for teaching online and/or remotely.
• Copyright: Resources about how media can be used legally in the classroom and online.

Teacher Observations & Evaluation

These resources can be used to provide program administration guidance regarding developing and/or modifying teacher evaluation plans for remote instruction.

• LINCS AE Competencies: An overview of the competencies that are expected of adult education practitioners as well as performance indicators and sample illustrations for each competency.
• The Marzano Focused Teacher Evaluation Model: A focused, simplified evaluation model for standards-based classrooms.
• ISTE Standards for Teachers: A website that overviews educator standards set by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
• Adult Education Educator Evaluation: A collection of resources developed by adult education in Connecticut to provide frameworks and guidance on instructor evaluation.

• VALRC SBI Observation Tools: Tools that provide concrete examples of what the CCRS and ELPS look like in daily planning and practice. Each observation tool includes five course actions to help determine whether curriculum and learning activities are standards-aligned, lessons are engaging and well-sequenced, and student understanding is monitored appropriately.

  • CCR + ELPS Observation Tool for English Language Acquisition
  • CCR Observation Tool for English Language Arts/Literacy
  • CCR Tool for Mathematics

Student Engagement & Motivation

These resources provide programs and instructors with guidance, strategies, and resources for engaging and motivating students within the virtual learning environment.

• Online Instructional Mentoring Guidelines: Guidelines that give mentors a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities.
• ISTE Standards for Students: An overview of student standards set by the  International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) that are designed to empower student voice and ensure that learning is a student-driven process.
• Professors Share Ideas for Building Community in Online Courses: An article by Inside Higher Ed that outlines strategies for building community in online courses.
• Strategies for Effective Group Work in the Online Class: Blog post outlines the purpose of and strategies for effective group work in the online class.
• How to Build Community in Your Online Classroom: Article by two experienced online instructors who lay out a process for building community in an online classroom including general principles, a toolkit for building community, and using a learning management system (LMS).
• 8 Strategies to Improve Participation in Your Virtual Classroom: Edutopia article that provides various strategies for improving participation in the virtual classroom, including strategies for both synchronous and asynchronous instruction.
• 7 Activities to Build Community and Positive Classroom Culture During Online Learning: Ideas for creating authentic connections, meaningful relationships, and classroom camaraderie through the screen.
• 25 Community-Building Activities for Virtual Classrooms: Ideas to help teachers forge bonds and create safe spaces for students to learn online.

Resources for Equity, Inclusion, Safety, and Privacy in the Online Classroom

These resources will provide programs and instructors with strategies, methods, and best practices for building online classrooms with equity, inclusion, safety, and privacy in mind.

• Making Shapes in Zoom: Article focuses on strategies for engaging students in synchronous and asynchronous formats, as well as how to be respectful of varying student engagement techniques.
• Cameras Be Damned: Discusses why cameras should not be required for synchronous instruction and proposes alternatives for student engagement. 
• COVID-19 and Video Classism: Discusses recommendations for interrupting video classism and checking implicit bias.
• Cameras Optional Please!: Discusses why cameras should be optional and how to build digital accessibility into an online course.
• How to Protect a Student's Privacy Online: Strategies for protecting students while learning online. While this is K-12 oriented and written from a California policy perspective, the strategies and considerations provided can be adapted for adult education.

• Internet Safety

  • Internet Safety for Adults
  • Basic Introduction to Internet Safety Course
  • Oasis Connections Guide and Online Safety Course
  • Curated List for Adults and Kids (includes Google Safety Center, GCF Learn Free, Commmon Sense Media)
  • A Curated List of Online Safety Resources Available in Spanish
  • Guide to Online Privacy and Security for Teachers