ISU will deliver ALL course content remotely during the two weeks, March 23-April 3, following spring break (March 23–April 3).
This is a huge shift for all of us, most especially faculty and students. We’ll all have to be patient with each other and work through challenges as they emerge, one-by-one. Faculty will need to prepare to deliver online at least the first post-spring break lecture on March 23/24, and then as each day passes another and another. So, I must ask faculty to immediately prepare for at least the first online lecture, between now and March 23 (during the short remainder of this week and/or during your own spring break).
The college and university will lend all the support possible, immediately, to help prepare faculty to offer their lectures and other instruction approaches online. Approximately 60% of all teaching faculty this semester are already using Canvas for some aspect of managing their course, and that platform can be expanded to deliver the online material. There may be other ways to deliver the course materials online or electronically, especially for small classes. Each faculty may elect to offer materials differently, except in the case of courses with multiple sections and instructors. In those cases all the instructors must coordinate with their department chair or designee to be able to uniformly deliver material and expectations to all students in every section as best as possible. It has not been sorted out or best practices described for how to handle laboratories. Please think on this, and consider alternative ways using online to deliver some of those learning objectives, and also how you’d use your class and lab time differently after students return to focus on those aspects of your classes.
If you need assistance setting up your course for teaching entirely online in Canvas, please send an email to Todd Vens– toddvens@iastate.edu –and he will have an instructional designer contact you.