January 6, 2021

This message is distributed to All-Instructors, Academic-Assistant-Deans, and Academic-Department-Managers.  (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,

The Instructional Support team has some updates for Winter quarter week 1, below. In light of today’s events, the IS team wanted to reinforce ideas you’ve shared with us for communicating with students about learning in difficult times:

  • Acknowledge that everyone (you and your students) may feel affected and/or may process their experiences in different ways
  • If you have a policy involving dropping students who don’t attend the first class, consider suspending this policy for this week
  • Build in flexibility around attendance and due dates
  • Ask students what they need (e.g. some people may want to the classroom as a space to not focus on the news while others may appreciate acknowledging what is going on) 


Basic needs resources for students

Please share this slide with students, which includes information on resources for food security, financial aid resources, and more. Go to the “File” menu and select “Make a copy” to include on your GauchoSpace page and/or in a presentation for students.

 

Make your life easier by enabling GauchoSpace course crashing 

Enabling course crashing means that students on the course waiting list can keep up with class readings and activities on your GauchoSpace site until they become officially enrolled, at which time they are automatically kept in your GauchoSpace site. 

 

Remote Learning Preparedness Survey

Consider using or adapting the Remote Learning survey template in GauchoSpace to learn about your students and their technology access for Fall quarter. 

 

Zoom or GauchoCast/Panopto Consultation 

Sign up for a consultation with a representative of Instructional Development for specific issues related to using Zoom and GauchoCast.  To sign up for a one-on-one consultation select an appointment slot.  Prior to signing up for a meeting, please review the GauchoCast/Panopto Self-Guided Training and/or the Zoom Self-Guided Training.  

 

 

We’ll be back with you next week…

The Instructional Support Team