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RECAST | Spring Startup: Crucial Details and Homework

by · March 19, 2020

Dear Faculty Colleagues –

These are unusual times. Thank you for all the hard work you are doing to reimagine your upcoming programs and courses. Many of you have been asking for guidance and clarity regarding spring quarter. We hope that the detailed message below answers most of your questions. Please read it thoroughly. If you have questions, please feel free to contact your dean (see deans groups) or write to deans@evergreen.edu.

We begin and end with homework, as well as key dates and decision points. There is information about the spring quarter timeline; faculty resources and support; submitting your syllabi and alternate instruction plans; schedules and spaces; communicating with your students; ILCs, INTs, and HSR; and support services from bookstore to library and beyond. A reminder that the college keeps the most updated information available on the college’s COVID-19 webpage.

Homework!

Key Dates and Decision Points

March 19/20: “Keep Teaching” Institutes
March 24/25: “Keep Teaching” Institutes
March 25: Write to your spring quarter students
March 30: Extended deadline for ILC/ INT
March 30-April 1: Classes cancelled
April 1: Submit syllabi and curricular changes via webform
April 2: Spring classes begin. All classes to be conducted remotely until April 24.
By April 10: Faculty notified about post-April 24 planning
April 25: Campus potentially moves to hybrid learning

Spring Quarter Timeline

As you know by now, we are moving to remote instruction in spring quarter. The quarter will begin on Thursday, April 2, to help accommodate these changes. We have received guidance to continue remote teaching through April 24. However, the situation is fluid. It would be wise for faculty to plan for the possibility that all spring quarter teaching might have to be conducted remotely.

In accordance with Governor Inslee’s directive, all classes will be held remotely through April 24.* No in-person instruction is permitted. All field trips and travel are cancelled through April 24. Study abroad has been cancelled for the entire quarter, along with studies involving domestic air travel, and all of these programs have been notified.

All faculty have been asked to alter their curricular offerings to meet the Governor’s directive. This includes graduate and undergraduate programs, courses, student-originated studies, individual learning contracts, and internships.

If conditions permit, on April 25 we may move to hybrid learning. Much instruction will necessarily continue remotely. We should expect that students that are studying remotely may not be able to return to campus. Any in-person instruction will need to be conducted with appropriate social distancing. Travel after April 24 may be permitted through application. Further guidance, along with appropriate application forms, will be provided early in spring quarter.

Support and Resources for Faculty

We continue to offer workshops for faculty to help with the transition to remote learning. Training dates are listed above/ below. You can find information about Evergreen’s “Keep Teaching” Institutes as well as the shift to remote learning at the Learning and Teaching Center:
https://sites.evergreen.edu/ltc/continuity/

If faculty need technological resources for working remotely they should complete the New Technology Request Form.

Communicating with Your Students

It is essential that you write to your spring 2020 students before Wednesday, March 25. We have promised students, via email, that you will write to them. We know from the deans’ email inbox that students are very anxious about next quarter, and will want a general plan regarding your offering(s). The CAT leaders have prepared a boilerplate message (attached) for you to use. Please feel free to adapt it to your needs.

Email is the college’s primary mode of communication. Please ensure you are reading and responding to your email in a timely manner. This will be crucial as we move to remote learning.

Submitting Your Syllabi and Alternate Instruction Plans

Every quarter, faculty submit their syllabi. There will be some extra information required this quarter. Our accrediting body, the NWCCU, has asked us to account for our curricular changes. This quarter, faculty will also be required to submit a report of how they are altering their offerings for remote learning by April 1, 2020, using this webform:
https://sites.evergreen.edu/academicforms/sp2020-alternate-instruction-plan/

The program coordinator for the offering should submit information for each curricular offering. Please plan for two eventualities: remote learning for the whole quarter, and a possible shift to hybrid learning with social distancing as of April 25, 2020.

You do not need to change your program description in the online catalog, nor do you need to alter an approved ILC through the online system. However, you will need to provide updated syllabi for all your altered offerings via the webform.

Spaces and Schedules

Classrooms, labs, and studios are closed to in-person instruction until at least April 24th. Students are not permitted to access these spaces, regardless of program, course, ILC, or otherwise.* These spaces can be accessed by faculty and staff on an individual basis for faculty research, and to prepare instructional materials. You must contact the appropriate area managers and staff to ensure they are aware of access, and so they can conduct proper cleaning. Faculty can still access their offices, and are encouraged to practice social distancing.

Students will be expecting you to adhere to some version of the information posted in Schedule Evergreen. Please try to add any synchronous activities within the blocks you have already set aside in your schedule. New blocks of time will affect students who are enrolled in multiple offerings, or who have commitments outside class time. Asynchronous activities may happen at various times.

Your schedule should be updated in Canvas so that students are aware of when they need to meet you online. Please remember that it may be difficult for students to access assigned synchronous learning, given the disruption to their lives. Faculty should have flexible attendance policies. Your contact hours with students should be a blend of the synchronous and asynchronous learning activities in the program.

We will have altered procedures for Week One registration. Stay tuned for an email.

ILCs, INTs, & HSR

The extended deadline for new ILC/ INT applications is March 30, 2020.

As with other offerings, faculty and students should revisit Individual Learning Contracts (ILCs) to ensure there is no in-person instruction or face-to-face interaction with others. There should be no travel or in-person instruction until at least April 24. (This may extend through the whole quarter.) Students who have already traveled should be advised to stay on location. Please consult with students about how their projects involve contact with others, and help them revise their plans. ILC revisions do not need to be submitted through the individual study system.

We are finalizing plans for internships. We expect that no in-person internships (INTs) will be permitted in spring quarter. Internships must abide by remote work guidelines established by Evergreen and community partners. Students and faculty sponsoring internships will be contacted by the Academic Deans Office to determine if changes are needed to their current plans. Any revisions to internship proposals will need to be put through the individual study system by March 30, 2020. In-program internships will need to be revised accordingly by faculty.

These changes may affect Human Subjects Review (HSR) approvals. Students and faculty should reconfigure any projects which include face-to-face interaction. Data collection through interviews, for example, should be performed remotely, or projects redesigned to eliminate them.

Library, Book Store, Media Services, Writing Center, QuaSR

The Greener Store and the Library including Media Loan  have adapted their regular practices to support  remote learning. The  Writing Center and QuaSR are working to offer virtual tutoring, pending confirmation of student employment for spring. Please see the links above for more detail.

Questions?

Contact contact your dean (see deans groups) or write to deans@evergreen.edu.

Thanks for everything you are doing to pivot on short notice – and thanks for reading through to the end!

Sincerely –

The Academic Deans
deans@evergreen.edu

Homework!

Key Dates and Decision Points

March 19/20: “Keep Teaching” Institutes
March 24/25: “Keep Teaching” Institutes
March 25: Write to your spring quarter students
March 30: Extended deadline for ILC/ INT
March 30-April 1: Classes cancelled
April 1: Submit syllabi and curricular changes via webform
April 2: Spring classes begin. All classes to be conducted remotely until April 24.
April 10: Faculty notified about post-April 24 planning
April 25: Campus potentially moves to hybrid learning

*Faculty-Student Research. There is an exception for research labs and clinics under the Governor’s directive. Accordingly, all faculty conducting research with student assistance (i.e. UGR offerings, ILCs, graduate research) may apply to the curriculum deans at curriculumteamdl@evergreen.edu for restricted 1:1 in-person learning with social distancing. Those plans will need to be approved before proceeding. Please describe the kind of learning, how you will supervise students, and any cleaning and other safety protocols that will be applied. (For reference, consider these approaches from UW and WWU.)

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