Engineering update: Final reminders, updates, and tips for S2020 instructors

This message was originally sent to instructors in the Faculty of Engineering by Daniel Davison, associate dean (undergraduate studies).

The university's first ever fully online/remote term starts in just a few days, on May 11!  Thank you for all of your work in getting ready for this historical moment.  I'm actually looking forward to teaching my course remotely.  Here are some reminders, updates, and tips:

(a) Start-of-term communication with students:  The Registrar's Office will be telling students today or tomorrow that they can expect to hear from their instructors at the start of term about how their courses will operate in S2020.  Students will be expecting this guidance either through the course LEARN page (for those using LEARN) or by email from the instructor (for those not using LEARN). 
 
Tips for those not using LEARN: 

•  You can download the roster for your class via the "Class Roster" tab in Quest.
•  Students may be added to your course up to May 25, so instructors not using LEARN will have to regularly monitor their class roster between May 11 and May 25 and reach out to anyone new.

(b) Be sympathetic and accommodate students who have technology challenges:  Some students have poor internet connections.  Some do not have webcams.  A surprisingly large fraction do not have access to a printer or scanner.  I've been in enough online meetings over the last two months to know that things can and do go wrong regularly with "live" events.  Products like zoom and WebEx are not perfect:  I've been in meetings where a participant's video feed dies, where someone can't get audio going, where audio quality suddenly worsens for everyone, where people clicked on the meeting invitation URL and were directed to two separate meetings(!), where real-time polling suddenly didn't work, ...   These problems and limitations are typically not the fault of the user.

(c) As always, the course outline must be available to students in the first week of term.  The course outline should include details about deliverables (when and how should students submit things?), grading, acceptable rules for group work, etc. See the course outline requirements.  Be sure your course outline is fully updated to reflect the online nature of the term. I ended up rewriting mine entirely.
 
(d) The attached memo from the AVPA, AVPGSA, and Registrar addresses ongoing questions about scheduling, both during the term and during the final assessment period.  I think this memo is consistent with everything I have shared in the past.  Specifically, the main points of the memo are the following:
 

• Synchronous vs asynchronous elements in the course:  The term is chiefly asynchronous, but instructors can try to organize synchronous activities with the understanding that not all students are likely going to be able to attend live events due to constraints on time zone, technology, etc.  No student should be disadvantaged by being unable to attend synchronous events.
• Final assessment period (Aug 7 - 15):  The university is advising that instructors find alternatives to the familiar 2.5-hour final exam.  (For my course, instead of a midterm and final in my course I'll be using six smaller tests throughout the term.)  If you must use a timed final exam, students should be provided a large window (they say 48 hours minimum) to write the exam.  Why?  Because the final assessment period is about half the usual length, and students will be juggling activities in all their courses.  A large window gives students flexibility to space out their various tests/exams/deadlines.  Plus there are the usual concerns about constraints arising from time zones, internet connectivity, etc.

(d) Handling of verification of illness forms and the self-declaration form:  The university still hasn't decided what protocols and processes will be used in S2020.  Stay tuned.

(e) Tip of the day (David Wang):  If you are planning to use any synchronous activities in your course, have an assistant (e.g., a TA) with you, especially during the first few sessions, to help with technical problems, to monitor chat lines, etc.  This way you can focus on the content of session and on the students.

(f) Final word:  If you are feeling overwhelmed, remember the #1 tip from experienced online instructors:  keep it simple!   Don't worry about making everything super flashy or perfect.  Use the simplest technology that meets your needs.  Be accommodating and sympathetic with students, and they will do the same for you.