Penn State announced on April 15, 2020, that its summer courses would be delivered in an online format instead of face-to-face. The timing provided roughly one month of preparation time for instructors to reformat their lessons and content for virtual delivery. To support that effort and equip faculty with best practices for online instruction, Penn State’s Teaching and Learning with Technology group developed the Engaging Student Series (ESS).
The ESS workshops were adapted from the BlendLT program and designed to help faculty explore opportunities to engage students in an online environment. The initial ESS consisted of four workshop sessions that focused on planning for student engagement and using synchronous content, asynchronous content, and assessment to engage students.
