instructor in front of a classroom.

Teaching Contingencies and Planning

There are any number of reasons to move a course online with short notice, fortunately UB has been developing distance education tools that faculty may utilize in a timely way.

It is recommended that you visit UB’s Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation . The CATT offers faculty a number of strategies for converting live face to face courses to an online instructional environment.

On this page:

How Do I Convert Physical Classroom Lectures to Asynchronous Distance Instruction?

Using UB Learns for Online Teaching

The university has a variety of tools that faculty may utilize to teach students who are off campus including UB Learns (Blackboard), the official learning management system (LMS) of the university.  UB Learns provides faculty with an online environment to create, deliver and manage their course content, as well as monitor participation and assess performance among learners. For more information about setting up and utilizing the UB Learns LMS, please visit and review the Emergency Course Planning page and review the checklist and section on Prepare Instruction For Emergency Delivery. Note: It is understood that some faculty may be using other LMSs other than UB Learns that include Westlaw TWEN or the Lexis LMS. Please refer to the respective publishers’ help pages for information on student collaboration.

For UB Learns course setup please visit:

UB Learns Support:

  • Faculty can setup UB Learns login at UBlearns.buffalo.edu
  • Support Hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
  • Phone support: 716-645-6188
  • Email support: ublearns@buffalo.edu
  • Walk-up support: 5 Norton Hall

How Do I Record My Lectures in Class or From Remote Locations?

Using Panopto for Recording Lectures

Panopto is the university’s tool for video recording classes and distributing content to students for asynchronous and synchronous instruction. The tool allows faculty to record, edit and publish academic video and audio content from your computer or mobile device.  Panopto files may be integrated with UB Learns or shared as links. Please note, Panopto recording capability are built into O’Brian classrooms 25, 102, 104, 106, 107, and 108. Faculty may contact Law IT AV services to schedule class recordings for later distribution to students. Additionally, faculty may download the Panopto recorder and record their class sessions for distribution to students through UB Learns or through a share link for each class. See important (how-to) Panopto links below:

How Do I Collaborate Online With My Students Asynchronously or Synchronously?

In addition to email, which is the fastest way to connect to students, UB makes available a number of resources for asynchronous and synchronous collaboration for all faculty staff and students. UB Box provides faculty with the ability to store, share, and collaborate on documents in real time with Microsoft Office 360. UB box also provides faculty and students with a chat (comment) option for communicating by messaging with students. UB Learns features a chat bulletin board that facilitates live communication. For videoconferencing collaboration, the law school prefers the Zoom videoconferencing tool and the university also provides faculty staff and students with Cisco WebEx for videoconferencing.

Using UB Box for Collaboration

UB students, faculty and staff can use UBbox to store, share and access academic and university-related documents from anywhere, with people inside and outside of UB.

Using the Zoom Video Communication Platform for Synchronous Teaching

The Zoom video communication application is the preferred videoconferencing tool for live events, conferences and lectures in the law school. Faculty may use Zoom for synchronous distance instruction, conferences, or meetings. All faculty and staff should have received a zoom invitation for the creation of a username and password. If you intend to use Zoom for classroom instruction, please contact Law IT for scheduling. For law school Zoom instruction, please see the Quick Start Guide and  the PowerPoint presentation slides from the March 6th Zoom presentation.

How Do I Offer Online Exams to My Students?

For online exams, the law school offers students the ability to take law exams using personal laptop computers in courses where professors have opted to use the Examplify software provided by ExamSoft. Please visit the Examplify Information & FAQ page for more information on ExamSoft. The ExamSoft application may be used for open or closed book and in off-campus or online situations.

How Do My Students Find Library Materials or Ask Reference Questions Online?

Accessing Course Materials

If students require research or course materials, please contact your library liaison or the law library reference department at 716-645-2047. If faculty student and staff require physical or electronic library materials, please utilize Delivery+.   For course reserve, please see Course Reserve Submission for electronic submission of course reserve titles.

Using Reference Online

How Do I Find Help as I Transition to Distance Learning?

Help from Law IT

For law school IT, visit Law School Information Technology for contact information or submitting a ticket. You may also contact Law IT by email at Law-IT-AVServices@Buffalo.edu or telephone 645-7393 during business hours.

Help From UBIT

Contact UBIT help online at UBIT Help Center.

Administrative Help from the Law School

Information on the HUB Faculty Center, UB learns, faculty advising, class registration, examinations, grading and policies may be found at the Records and Registration page: Information for Faculty & Staff.

Helpful Information and Documents