Contingency Plan

Planning

• Consider establishing contingency plans ahead of time for how students can continue their work in the event of an emergency situation that would require cancellation of face-to-face meetings.

• Consider adding such plans to or amending your syllabus early on to explain how you might make unanticipated changes in your course should the need arise.

• Use your course Blackboard (Bb) site to create a contact point for students to receive updates on your plans.  Whether you currently use your course site or not, a Bb site is created for every course offered for credit at Tulsa Community College.

Inclusion

When moving to a distance format, consider how students will access the content you are making available online.  The articles An Equitable Transition to Online Learning:– Flexibility, Low Bandwidth, Cell Phones, and more.  and Please do a bad job putting your class online provide suggestions for moving online while keeping student realities in the forefront.   

 Communicate

• Use the Bb Announcements and/or email tool to communicate course updates. Students are automatically enrolled in Bb, making it easy to send an email or a copy of an announcement.

• Make your Bb course site is available so that students can access the announcements.   

• Use MyTCC to obtain preferred email addresses and student phone numbers. Go to your detailed course list and click the links to Student-E-mail address and Student Address and Phones.

• Blackboard Collaborate is a tool that will allow you to hold live online class sessions or office hours.    

Lecture Materials and Assignments

• Create course materials and post documents to your Bb course site.

• Create audio/video lectures that can be viewed asynchronously. Tulsa Community College uses a system called Panopto to host videos.  Panopto provides a desktop app or a browser app that you can use to easily create your own videos.  You can record audio, video, and anything you display on your computer screen. The link to your video is uploaded to your Bb course site, giving students easy access to your lecture. Find out more about Panopto at the Online Learning Knowledge Base. 

• Collect Assignments using Blackboard’s Assignment Tool. 

• Administer online quizzes

• Hold discussions using the Bb discussion board.

• Consider modifying lecture materials with assigned readings.  The TCC library has online databases with many full-text articles.  Students and instructors can authenticate to the library database by clicking on the  Library link inside MyTCC.

Course Models and Resources You Can Use in Your Class

eCore sites are online template courses created by faculty, instructional designers, librarians, and technologists. For more information about eCore courses, please contact onlinelearning@tulsacc.edu. 

If you have questions or need suggestions for contingency plans for unique situations, please send an email to bbsupport@tulsacc.edu.

Updated 3/8/23