Whether you plan to teach asynchronously, synchronously, or a combination of the two during spring 2021, this page is for you! We’ve curated all of our favorite resources for your virtual classroom and organized them in chronological order – from planning your semester to celebrating the end of term, we’ve got you covered.
First Things First
The very best place to start your search is the Collaboratory’s own comprehensive resource list! Here you will find links to virtual tours from around the world, image and model repositories, museum databases, Collaboratory videos, and more. We’ll review several of these resources individually.
Planning Your Semester
There are many fantastic resources about planning your virtual semester out there on the internet. We’re here to highlight the resources we have found the most helpful.
- We recommend starting with our department’s own “Talking About Art” videos. There is no need to re-invent the wheel each time you teach an art history course at UMD. Take advantage of the department’s short (approximately 5 minutes) video introductions to basic formal concepts like chiaroscuro, composition, or line.
- We are no strangers to SmartHistory in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at UMD. The delightful and informative videos by Dr.s Beth Harris and Steven Zucker are mainstays for online teaching. But have you explored the new-ish release of SmartHistory’s Short Courses? Developed expressly for educators transitioning to online teaching and learning in 2020, each “short course” provides a collection of videos related to a central theme: for example, Where are the Women Artists?, Art and the Environment, and Oppression and Resistance. For each thematic unit, you can pick and choose the videos most relevant to your own course or assign the entire short course.
- Finally, we cannot recommend highly enough the website arthistoryteachingresources.org. We love the extensive resource repository, adaptable lesson plans (with downloadable PowerPoints!), assignment ideas, and learning activities provided by art history educators across the country. AHTR.org offers three categories of lesson plans: Survey 1 (15 lesson plans); Survey 2 (23); and “Thematic” (17). For a more thorough “deep dive,” check out this review on the Digital Art History Society’s blog.
Engaging Students: Digital Icebreakers
Engaging your students in their online classroom is a delicate operation. It is imperative that we acknowledge that students have varying degrees of access to strong WiFi connections, comfort levels with being on video, and ability to connect socially in a video conferencing format. With that in mind, we highly recommend asking students to participate in whatever manner they find appropriate. We also encourage you to use many and varied opportunities for participation; for example, be sure to utilize the chat, breakout room, and polling system features on Zoom in addition to real-time conversation to ensure that all students are able to engage.
The best way in our experience to get to know your students, develop rapport, and bridge the digital divide in the crucial first week of class is through low-stakes, fun digital icebreakers. Check out this blog post on the DAHS website – Digital Byte: 4 Games to Break the Digital Ice – for four games you can use both for first week of class icebreakers and throughout the semester to provide a bit of levity during your lectures. And watch the video below to see your favorite D.I.G. fellows demonstrating two digital icebreakers.
Mid-Semester Evaluations
We all know the importance of feedback – it is a way to check in with your students and to foster a meaningful conversation about what is going well, what could be improved, and what cannot be changed. Check out the recent blog post on the DAHS website – Soliciting Feedback in Your Virtual Classroom or for Your Digital Project – for a deep dive into the why, whens, and hows of virtual feedback to facilitate honest and constructive feedback.
Practicing Visual Analysis Skills
Visual Analysis is the bedrock of what we as art historians do. In the Collaboratory, we’ve developed a fun and engaging way to hone students’ visual analysis skills and practice art historical terminology. We named it ‘Morelli’s Ear’ after the famed 19th-century Italian art critic whose “diagnostic,” highly-detailed approach to identifying artists is a nice counterpoint to our desired learning outcomes. Check out the video below to see the D.I.G. fellows demonstrate ‘Morelli’s Ear.’
Finally, Don’t Force It
As the Chronicle of Higher Education has recently reminded us, we simply cannot and should not force engagement with our students. The best proven way to boost engagement is fun. Consider starting each class with a student-selected song (bonus points if the song relates to a recent lecture) or incorporating an icebreaker or two throughout the semester. Mix up your strategies to be as inclusive as possible: consider periodically offering students five minutes of mindful quiet at the beginning of your lecture or pairing students in groups of two to respond to a prompt. And always remember that building a community online requires patience and flexibility.
One idea we particularly love is asking students to create a meme of their experience this semester (this could also pair nicely with the Collaboratory’s annual animated gif competition 🤔.) Students can then present their final project on the last day of class. Anticipate a fair amount of roasting!
Speaking of Fun and Force, we leave you here our own favorite online classroom meme:
