Dear Faculty,
As we promised we are following up with more resources to help you plan your teaching. Remember, next week is a week to plan and test things out...we have time! We are working hard to get information to you as fast as we can, but we want to emphasize that next week was intentionally meant as a place for people to pause and prepare. We have time to plan. Don’t panic if you don’t yet feel prepared, we are here to help.
Educational Continuity Website on calarts.edu
We are happy to announce that, as of today there is an EDUCATIONAL CONTINUITY website available for faculty. It is a repository of information to help as you work to transition to remote teaching. You can find that here: calarts.edu/educational-continuity
There is some information on there now but much more will come in the next few days. Please keep checking back.
Faculty Instructional Liaisons
In addition we have identified faculty members in each school who are willing to serve as advisors to help faculty adjust their courses to be online. They are faculty with experience in the online format; if you want to be connected to one of them contact us at learnhelp@calarts.edu. If you are interested in being a liaison you can also reach out to us there.
Again, our aim here is to provide the students with educational continuity and support. You are not expected to replicate the experience of your in-person teaching but to work creatively to provide as much of the content of your class as is possible in these extraordinary circumstances.
Tips as you plan
Some thoughts as you plan (some of this is inspired by something put out by the Berklee School of Music):
- Be flexible and forgiving of students. This is a huge upheaval for them and many may have unstable schedules or difficult learning environments.
- Remember the intentions and learning objectives of your course. You are not going to replicate the exact course, but that might help you decide on priorities. Consider what you absolutely need to do in order to meet those objectives. Then we can think about how to achieve them in the new context of online teaching and learning. Be flexible within that.
- Consider whether you want to keep existing assignments, or pivot to other assignments. Think about what you can do in smaller discussion groups or through written assignments. Please do not assign projects that require students meeting in-person.
- Decide what can be done asynchronously (not at the same time) and what to do “live.”
We do urge you to reach out to the students in your courses and make sure they understand how your class will be proceeding when it begins remotely the week of March 23. Make sure you establish a clear and consistent form of communication. Also, please do not meet with students on campus or off; it is important to maintain your health and theirs.
If you do shift your syllabus significantly, please submit a revised syllabus to your Dean’s office by April 6.
If you have not already filled out the Faculty Technology Assessment form please do so. We would like to have everyone fill it out by the end of day today.
Please take care of yourselves during this time.
Best,
Lee Anne Schmitt,
Director of Faculty Affairs
Tracie Costantino,
Provost