Essentials for digital teaching

Use Moodle and other Concordia-supported technologies

It’s essential that all students be able to consistently access their course content in one place. Be sure to upload all course resources to Moodle so that your students will easily and securely know where to find them. This will minimize confusion for your students. 
 
Moodle is a secure online space designed for asynchronous activities, known as a Learning Management System (LMS). Instructors can post content and resources to the Moodle course space, facilitate communication such as chats and forums, and manage assessment and feedback using quizzes. It’s key that you create ways for students to engage with you, each other and with course content. Moodle offers many ways for you to do this while also maintaining connection with your students.

Other Concordia-supported tools also play an integral role in creating accessible digital content, delivering your online, hybrid or blended course and managing your online exams.

For hybrid courses, evidence shows that intentional course design across digital platforms, including the LMS (Moodle), videoconferencing tools (Zoom), classroom technologies, and learning activities, helps support equal access and participation of both online and in-person students (Barr & Luo, 2026). 

Protect privacy

At Concordia, we are committed to protecting the personal information of the members of our community. If you are recording a live class session, please advise your students that they are being recorded and that their image and voice will be recorded unless they take precautions. If they do not wish to have their image or voice recorded, they should be advised to turn their camera off and not speak. Make yourself available for any follow up questions, notably for students who choose not to be recorded. Please see the Concordia Educational Technology Guidelines for Faculty and Students for full details.

Be aware of your intellectual property

Concordia has established a suite of institutionally supported educational technologies that are intended to help protect intellectual property. For example, if you are uploading your lecture videos, YuJa has the benefit of allowing you to securely share your videos so students will see them in a view-only format. Students also do not need any additional software or need to log in elsewhere because YuJa is built into Moodle. Please see the Concordia Educational Technology Guidelines for Faculty and Students for full details.

Ensure an accessible and inclusive learning environment 

When there is more technology integrated into your teaching, it can shift the environment and the dynamics that the students have with you, the content and each other. There are some different elements to consider in creating an accessible and inclusive environment for your students to ensure equal access and increase motivation and connection.

Key strategies include making sure your digital content meets digital accessibility guidelines. Try to avoid sharing PDFs as much as possible and designing your material to be accessible from the start. Work with your Subject librarian to obtain accessible readings that also respect copyright. You can check the accessibility of your Moodle course and allow students to download your materials in various formats with the Brickfield Accessibility+ Toolkit plugin.

Finally, it’s also important to consider the classroom environment in the online setting, whether synchronous or asynchronous. Here are some strategies for creating an inclusive classroom environment online.

Design your course for the teaching context and learning environment 

When teaching an online, hybrid or blended course, all of the evidence-based principles of course design (i.e., planning course content and workloads, developing student learning outcomes, designing assessments and teaching activities) hold but need to be intentionally adapted to the teaching context and modality (e.g., online, hybrid) and the learning environment (e.g., the learning management system (Moodle), available audiovisual equipment, classroom infrastructure, students’ social interaction and more) (Raes, 2021). Elements of effective teaching such as frequent interaction with students, diversifying activities and breaking teaching and learning segments into smaller pieces become even more important in online, hybrid or blended contexts. 

Key elements specific to teaching in digital contexts need to be planned and designed into a course. These include instructor presence, how content will be presented, interaction and communication, assessment and evaluation, as well as support for learners (Bollinger & Martin, 2021).

Other aspects of intentional course design for digital contexts include alignment (connecting learning outcomes to activities and assessments), balance (how learning activities and assessments are distributed through the course), flexibility (around deadlines or adaptability in times of disruption), and ensuring that learning activities are relevant to students’ lives and academic experiences (Wright et al., 2022).

Explore the principles and practice of course design.

Adapt your strategies for teaching online

Teaching in a digital context and environment will necessarily impact how your course content will be presented, what interaction will look like, how communication happens and what kind of support students may need in these contexts. 

Student engagement is particularly important (Raes, 2021) and depends greatly on cognitive, social and teaching presences (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008). That means thinking about opportunities for students to engage in critical and practical inquiry, reflection, and experiential learning, how students engage with one another and you, as well as your role in fostering cognitive and social presence.

Our resources provide strategies for teaching online as well as tips on how to build a teaching plan appropriate for your context and learning environment.

Promote academic integrity

Reinforcing academic integrity is crucial in online, hybrid or blended environments. By communicating your expectations around engagement and interaction, as well as providing clear guidelines around assessments and activities, you can support your students and help ensure academic integrity (Wright et al. 2022). Be sure to also engage your students in conversations around academic integrity and check in with them to ensure a shared understanding of your expectations.

Book a consultation

If you are designing a new online course or shifting an existing course to a new modality such as online, hybrid or blended and would like more direction, book a one-on-one consultation at the CTL for individualized guidance.

References

Barr, T., & Luo, T. (2026). HyFlex course design: Outcomes, challenges, and supports for students and instructors. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 38, 622–650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-025-09452-6

Bolliger, D. U., & Martin, F. (2021). Critical design elements in online courses. Distance Education, 42(3), 352–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2021.1956301

Garrison, D. R., & Vaughan, N. D. (2008). Blended learning in higher education: Framework, principles, and guidelines (The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series). Jossey-Bass.

Raes, A. (2021). Exploring student and teacher experiences in hybrid learning environments: Does presence matter? Postdigital Science and Education, 4, 138-159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-021-00274-0

Wright, A. C., Dyjur, P., Norman, D., & Kelly, P. (2022) Guiding principles of blended and online course design. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. Calgary: University of Calgary.