October 14, 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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Two updates from the Instructional Support Team this week:

GauchoSpace: Creating Winter quarter courses

Instructors will need to create course sites for Winter 2022 on a new installation of GauchoSpace called GauchoSpace Pelican. Access to GauchoSpace Pelican will be available to instructors on October 26th, 2021 via a direct link in the UCSB Site Creator block on GauchoSpace.

On December 16th, 2021 GauchoSpace will archive course sites to benefit performance and make disaster recovery more reliable and faster. After December 16, 2021, instructors and students can access GauchoSpace sites for courses taught between Summer 2015 and Fall 2021 (aka this quarter) via a direct link in GauchoSpace that will take them to the archive, called GauchoSpace Lagoon.

Instructors will still be able to access all previous course materials through the Archive. Course materials will be easily imported into the new GauchoSpace. Additionally, all departmental project sites will be migrated to the new GauchoSpace on December 16th.

Detailed instructions and more information are forthcoming via the D-list and the IS Team message. For questions or concerns, please email help@collaborate.ucsb.edu.  

Attendance, Exams, and Student Absences
What happens when students miss (midterm) exams?

  • Have a plan for students who miss exams (e.g. make-up, drop lowest score) and post it on your GauchoSpace site.
  • Don’t ask for a doctor’s note: Student Health needs to keep their limited appointment times open for students with urgent health matters. When students fail the Covid screening, they will take a Covid test and follow the Student Health protocol, based on its results.
  • Trust your students. Following a long period of isolation, expect more students to be sick with colds and flus than in years past.

We’ll be back with more next week!

The IS Team