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Be Patient
Be Patient
Arm yourself with patience. If an emergency plan of this magnitude were to be implemented, the first thing everybody will need is patience! There are a few things you can do to prepare, but being patient in a time of uncertainty is crucial for yourself, students and staff.
Campus resources, including VITAL, will certainly be over-capacity. Timely information, instructions, and support may be significantly delayed. Be patient with service providers including staff, administrators, and colleagues! This will not be as perfect as you had hoped or planned. Be kind to yourself, allow yourself to try new things and fail forward! Laugh, shake it off and try again!
Allow yourself to model for the students the processes of trial and error, feedback gathering, including others in the improvement (your students), and the release of perfection.
Pre-Planning Practices
Pre-Planning Practices
As an instructor at Valpo, there are a multitude of resources at your fingertips. While university resources may be stressed, there are a few things you can do to make the transition less arduous. VITAL recommends the following considerations preparing yourself for an event.
Develop A Departmental Support Call Tree
Develop A Departmental Support Call Tree
University services related to academics will most certainly be overloaded and response times could be at an all-time high. Creating a support (instructional and technical) call tree may be your best defense and support through a certainly trying time.
In your department, you may want to determine who among the group could best field calls related to technical issues. Another person could handle instructional solutions/brainstorming ideas. Departments could develop a phone a friend tree, too. Whereby each faculty member has two others to reach out to before going to the top of your call tree. This may be especially efficient in larger departments.
After preparing the call tree document, please upload it for VITAL's reference.
Learn & Use Blackboard for Courses
Learn & Use Blackboard for Courses
If you are not already using Blackboard, please do so from today. In the event of a shift to online instruction, this will be the supported platform for the delivery of online content.
Blackboard has created a playlist of tutorial videos for users getting started and designing their courses.
Modify Existing Student Expectations
Modify Existing Student Expectations
Think of this as your first thought when a situation comes up. What is reasonable to expect from my students as they transition to a new teaching method? Enforcing late work rules, requiring synchronous attendance, mandating group projects, etc. may no longer be appropriate for your students or the course at a time of crisis. Some items to consider are:
Course Delivery Models
Synchronous Course
Asynchronous Course
Hybrid
Syllabus Modifications
Changes to course policies
Attendance Policies
Lesson/Classroom Activity Conversions
Absolute content v. disposable content
Adjustment period
Affected/Infected Student Modifications
Don't spend a terrible amount of time planning each detail. Just think about the big picture. In thinking about possibilities, note them on a paper copy of a syllabus, make a list of modifications, or just think about your course from the student perspective.
Keep in mind, students will have stressors to adjust to in a quick switch over. Additionally, they may be ill, have friends or family members affected, have limited access to technology or software, etc. It is not recommended to share your planning thoughts with the students each semester. Just have them in your back pocket for the "just in case."
If there is an imminent issue on the horizon, such as COVID-19, simply reassure the students that you have thought about the possibility of going online for the rest of the semester. Don't discuss details, just a brief overview of the plan if they have questions.
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