Science update: Strategies for completing winter 2020 courses amidst COVID-19: Addendum 1

This message was originally sent to instructors in the Faculty of Science by Marlee Spafford, associate dean, undergraduate studies.

I expect to intermittently highlight specific points for instructors and/or advisors to consider in the next while. This email addresses two issues.

Advice to give students wanting to travel home:

Students need to decide whether to stay or leave, based on their own circumstances (much of which we don’t know). Thus, we should avoid approving or recommending that students return home. The shift to online instruction is intended to mitigate health risks; it was not motivated by convenience.The university is not closed and the Winter courses are not over.Students need to decide how and from where they will complete their online course work. This decision is a particularly difficult one for visa students who are monitoring travel restrictions and health risks here and in their home country, while considering internet connectivity in their home country, in some cases. Like us, students must weigh the risks and take responsibility for their decisions. We may reach a point where the University asks us to vacate campus but currently, all of us are allowed to be on campus. 

Students needing AAS accommodations:

Instructors need to maintain AAS-approved accommodations.Learn deadlines for online tests and assignments can be adjusted for individual students to support sanctioned additional writing time (I appreciate this is a larger task for high enrolment courses). A small number of students need scribes for tests (a function that cannot be accommodated through Learn). In these cases, instructors may want to defer the test to a time when in-person testing can occur or offer an alternate method of evaluation. Assistive technology can be incorporated with Learn for students who have this need. AAS can advise instructors on these issues