March 19, 2020 

A message sent on behalf of Jeffrey Stopple, Associate Vice Chancellor, Undergraduate Education
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Dear Colleagues,

As you are making the transition to remote instruction for spring quarter, there are many things you will need to consider.  The EVC has indicated, in response to questions about the possibility of delaying the start of the quarter, “Some of these transitions will take time to implement and not everything will work perfectly during the first week of Spring Quarter. It is not possible for us to delay the beginning of Spring Quarter at this time, but we understand that during this transition some instructors will be working out organizational and technical issues.  I would urge faculty to communicate with students from the beginning of the quarter and have some sort of beginning to the course.” He emphasizes the need for communication with students as soon as possible, and, ideally, at the least, some preliminary assignments that students could be asked to work on in advance, and a preview of how the course will work, even if the first lecture is delayed.

I am in complete agreement.  At the same time, you or (more likely) your departmental undergraduate advisor, will be struggling to clear the waiting lists and identify course crashers.  We are developing best practices for undergraduate advisors in departments for crashing courses and clearing waitlists with remote instruction.  Two elements will be crucial.

First, you will want to include some low stakes activities to track student participation.  For example, Gauchospace has

  • The attendance activity module enables a teacher to take attendance during class ….  Reports are available for the entire class or individual students.
  • The choice activity module enables a teacher to ask a single question and offer a selection of possible responses….
  • The quiz activity enables a teacher to create quizzes comprising questions of various types, including multiple choice, matching, short-answer and numerical….
  • What is key here is to get the course up and running in some fashion, to reassure and engage students and to determine how many seats are available in the course so we can accommodate as many students as possible. Remember that students need to take a minimum number of credits to meet certain eligibility requirements (including financial aid).

Second, you will need to set clear expectations for your students on what level of non-participation will result in being dropped from the class.  What (if anything) you choose is completely up to you and your department - I’m just making the point it needs to be explicit.

We were short of classes for spring, even before the switch to remote instruction.  Some additional classes have already been cancelled.  Students on cancelled EAP and UCDC spring programs are scrambling to find classes, having missed out on two pass times.  Our concern is that we don’t know how many students will withdraw for spring quarter.  They don’t even need to tell us; they can simply not pay their fees and be lapsed at the end of the third week.  This will be too late for many students trying to crash.  Your assistance in gathering data on nonparticipating students and dropping them to clear waitlists will be crucial in getting us though spring.  

Thank you all for all you are doing to try to adapt so quickly!