April 7, 2020
This message is distributed to SBFACU-L, SBNSF-L, SBNSOTHER-L, and SBADM-L. (Click here to view description of distribution groups.)
The following is being sent on behalf of the Instructional Support Team
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Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to day 2, week 2! We hope everyone had a chance for some downtime over the weekend. Resources, reminders, and pedagogical activities for the beginning of the week.
If you are meeting a class or section synchronously, please do so during the regularly scheduled time for your course/section (or consult with ALL students, who must agree to alternative arrangements). We are hearing a few reports of instructors and TAs who are changing synchronous class meeting times. This can cause conflicts if students are enrolled in other courses, also meeting synchronously, at the originally scheduled time(s).
Millions of electronic books are now available to UCSB users in the HathiTrust Digital Library, thanks to their Emergency Temporary Access Services (ETAS) for member institutions. These include both in-copyright and public domain books held in the UC libraries' physical collections. You will need to login using your NetID and Password. More details here.
Instructor Lessons for Others: Featured Strategy
We’re featuring useful strategies from instructors that may benefit others. Click here to contribute your own!
Today’s strategy comes from Professor of English, Alan Liu:
Even in large courses, it’s important to communicate with students and be as flexible as possible. Liu, currently teaching a large, lower division course, shares his strategy:
“I ran an enrollment poll via a Google form this past weekend that was required of all students (enrolled, on wait list, crashing) to confirm they are really still taking the course or hoping to be admitted.
Professor Liu’s results lead him to offer important suggestions:
* Some students really are having problems with the most basic access to remote teaching. I think we have to go to extra lengths to allow for flexibility and that we need to adapt our expectations as instructors to the reality that a fair number of our students just aren't going to be [able to] regularly read assignments or listen to our classes (real-time or recorded).
* The other lesson is: repeat, repeat, repeat all important course instructions and requirements. It's really hit or miss whether students are receiving instructions or attending to them in disrupted circumstances when they have so many other things to attend to.”
*If you would like to share other strategies to be considered for these messages, submit them here!
Pedagogy Workshops for Instructors and TAs this week:
Inclusive Teaching Online, Wed, Apr 8, 1–2pm: Join via Zoom (with Linda Adler-Kassner)
Facilitating Student Interaction with Instructors and TAs, Wed, Apr 8, 4–5pm: Join via Zoom (with Mindy Colin) (Please complete this short survey before the workshop)
Happy Hour! Fri, Apr 10, 3 – 5pm: Join via Zoom (hosted by LisaBerry)
You can also contact us for 1-1 pedagogy consultations:
Mindy Colin (mcolin@ucsb.edu or @mindy.colin in Nectir)
Lisa Berry (lisa_berry@ucsb.edu or @lisa.berry in Nectir)
Linda Adler-Kassner (ladler@ucsb.edu) - to schedule a consultation, click here
Zoombombing: Securing Your Meetings/Reporting ProceduresA reminder that the best way to secure your Zoom meeting is to enable the Advanced setting: “Only authenticated users can join.” You’ll find tips on securing Zoom meetings here, here, and here. “Zoombombing” occurs when an uninvited party joins a Zoom session to cause disruption. If you are the victim of Zoombombing, please report it by emailing the Security Operations Center (SOC) at security@ucsb.edu. Often this disruption takes the form of profanity, hate speech, or pornography. Sometimes the disruption includes threats. If you receive threats during a Zoom session, find reporting information here. Please also notify the UC police by calling (805) 893-3446.
We’ll be back mid-week with more news and strategies. Until then, thank you for your efforts and keep up the good work!
The Instructional Support Team