February 7, 2021
Dear Colleagues:
As the announcement earlier this morning indicates, because of a rise in Covid-19 cases involving students on and off-campus, the University has raised the operational posture from “Elevated” to “High”. This means that face-to-face classes/labs/studios must move to fully remote delivery while we are in this status for a minimum of two weeks of class.
Most of our students and our faculty and TOs are familiar with fully remote instruction and the technology tools that facilitate online instruction (Blackboard, Moodle, and Zoom). As in-person instructors temporarily move their classes to a fully remote format, it may be easiest to adopt synchronous online class sessions as temporary substitutes. Faculty with TAs who run face-to-face discussion or lab sections should contact your TAs directly with guidance about the shift to remote instruction.
To facilitate the immediate move of your in-person classes to fully online faculty and instructors will want to take the following steps:
- Request Moodle or Blackboard for your course(s) if you have not already done so.
- Create a Zoom link for your synchronous class sessions. See Meeting with your Class in Zoom for instructions on accessing Zoom, running a Zoom meeting and sharing your Zoom Meetings with Students.
- Communicate your course plans with your students as soon as possible (either through your Moodle or Blackboard course or by using the class roster function in SPIRE). If you will be using Zoom, include the Zoom link you will use for your class and a link to How to join a zoom meeting for students who may be unfamiliar with Zoom.
IDEAS provides instructional support for Blackboard, Moodle, and Zoom. IDEAS consultants are available 9 am to 4 pm today (Sunday); please email instruct@umass.edu for assistance. Beginning Monday, drop-in Faculty Support Zoom sessions are open Mon – Fri 9:00 am – 3:00 pm.
CTL, IDEAS, IT, and the Libraries maintain a central help request form. Faculty and instructors needing assistance in redesigning a syllabus or assignments, accessing Library E-reserves, using classroom technologies, or any other assistance related to moving their in-person classes to fully remote can submit a request for assistance through this form.
While we are fully remote, the Provost's Office will pause the Positive Test Notification Process informing instructors of records of positive tests occurring with students in their face-to-face class. This process will resume when we are back in the classroom in person.
Thank you for all you do in supporting our students in this very difficult time.
John McCarthy
Provost & Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs