Teaching & Research

Research Continuity

• See: SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 and Research Continuity

Phishing Scams

• Opportunistic cybercriminals are targeting individuals and organizations with COVID-19 related attacks. These attacks come in the form of malicious “phishing” emails, SMS texts, phone apps, and websites. In many cases, their goal is to get you to click on a link, open an attachment, or install an app, that will infect your device with different types of malware.
• Beware of - Suspicious email address, Generic or non-routine message, Sense of urgency, and Misspelling, typos, unfamiliar languages. https://security.uci.edu/secure-computer/phishing.html

Transitioning to Online Teaching – It will be hard, but DTEI has resources available, privacy is important.

• Minimum Resources - https://sites.uci.edu/teachanywhere/pedagogy/minimum-tools/
  • Webinars: sites.uci.edu/teachanywhere/pedagogy/webinars/
  • Also, in video form: https://youtu.be/VKj0bIRE7Co
  • Writing Instruction Resources: http://writing.uci.edu/resources/facultyinstructor-resources/online-writing-instruction-resources/
  • How to prevent Zoom Bombing
  • Digital Accessibility Resources
  • Lessons Learned and Continued Success on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/412466561
  • The Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation and the Office of Information Technology are partnering on a series of webinars to ensure that your transition to teaching remotely online is as smooth as possible. https://sites.uci.edu/teachanywhere/pedagogy/remote-teaching-prep-week/
  • Continuing Education offers a featured series on homeschooling.
    • Emotional Health Tips for You and Your Family, Thursday, May 7, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
    • How to Incorporate Teaching into Everyday Life, Thursday, May 14, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
    • A blog about Homeschooling: http://www.ucihealth.org/blog/2020/04/homeschooling-and-covid19

• On Working From Home (From Phong and Elizabeth)
  • Working from Home Webinar: https://ce.uci.edu/resources/events/event.aspx?id=00685&iesrc=ctr
  • Make an “office.” You don’t have to have a ton of space to do this but see what you can replicate from the space you worked before into this one you have now. I put my pens and notebooks out each day just like I would in my faculty office. I had a chat with a PhD student today from her garage. Wherever works for you, own it!
  • Give yourself a commute. What??? I thought the benefit of working from home is NOT having a commute. It kind of is, but I have found that a little separation between home and work, physically and temporally can help. So, before you sit down to work for the day, take a walk around your apartment, complex, street, and then get started. And when you take a break for lunch or other reasons, take a break. Close things up and walk away. And at the end of the day - leave the “office.” The first time I worked from home, I was in a tiny apartment, and I would literally lay a towel over my desk, covering my laptop and books and declare the office closed for the day.
  • Maintain regular hours. It is hard enough as a PhD student to have a sense of schedule. Confinement only makes this harder. The more you can do to keep regular hours--whether those hours are early morning to late afternoon or late afternoon to midnight--if they are structured, it should help you with focus.
  • Socialize. You can’t be in person with anyone but your family or roommates right now. That’s rough. We all need a break from those folks (or from our own heads) sometimes. Don’t go too long without a check-in with a friend. And remember, even if you don’t think YOU need one, maybe your friend or family member does. So, help them out.
  • Don’t be too hard on yourself! Working remotely is hard under the best of conditions. I ran an entirely remote team for about a year, and it was exhausting. You are under more stress and strain than the “average bear,” so own those little mistakes, own your days when you can’t be “productive,” and be gentle with yourself. You will get there

• Privacy Guidance –
  • Instructors and staff should use only platform(s) selected, vetted and approved by the University. In addition to standard Canvas tools, Zoom and Yuja, a list of approved tools can be found [below]. Utilizing Canvas as the main platform provides a secure starting point for sharing files with students and ensuring only authorized people have access to course materials, either your own or student generated ones.
  • https://sites.uci.edu/canvas/plus/3rd-party-tools/
  • Privacy Considerations - https://security.uci.edu/privacy/COVID-19.html#/privacy/COVID-19
  • Record your sessions in Zoom (after modifying your settings as described below), record the session locally, and upload the recording into YuJa for embedded distribution with YuJa Media Chooser. This will: (i) make it very difficult for someone to grab the link and share/download the session and (ii) allow you to modify the settings in your Zoom profile settings.
    • Settings/meeting: turn OFF “auto saving chats”
    • Settings/meeting: turn ON “allow host to type closed captions or assign a participant/third party device to add closed captions”
    • Settings/recording: turn OFF “local recording: allow hosts and participants to record the meeting to a local file”
    • Settings/recording: turn ON “cloud recording: allow hosts to record and save the meeting in the cloud”

Disability Services – Staff working remotely, accessibility guidance available before 4.1.2020.

• Our Disability Services Center has been working around the clock to ensure our students have appropriate access. Please reach out to them if you need help, can volunteer to help others, or have questions.
• DSC staff are currently working remotely during business hours. You can, however, reach the team by email and/or by dialing their office telephone numbers. The office phones are forwarded to our DSC cell phones. Lisha Yi will still be working with you for real time captioning as needed and for providing sign language interpreters. They are putting together accessibility guidance for faculty, TAs, and readers to be on their website before April. Feel free to contact the DSC office at dsc@uci.edu or 949-824-7494 Monday - Friday from 8 pm - 5 pm with any questions or concerns.