Academic Continuity Update

Message from the Office of the Dean
March 12, 2020

Dear College of Design Faculty and Staff,

As we learned in President Schill’s March 11 message, the University of Oregon has joined many other institutions shifting to remote instructional operations in response to the coronavirus.

No in-person final exams will be delivered next week and classes for at least the first three weeks of Spring term will be delivered remotely. Our goal is to continue academic functions to the best of our ability, while mitigating exposure for our community. Students are understandably concerned about being able to continue to progress in their studies, many of them expecting to graduate this June.

While a challenge for the entire campus community, moving to remote instructional delivery presents particular difficulties for the College of Design. With our emphasis on experiential learning and studio education, the College has been working to develop strategies that will work for our academic needs.

Curricular Planning:

At the beginning of the year, we created four academic continuity teams (one for each of the Schools and the Department of History of Art and Architecture), which include the school and department leaders and lead staff. I know that they have been actively working with all of you to provide information, understand course needs, and develop discipline-specific solutions. They are working closely with me and the College staff to facilitate those solutions. Some course content will translate more easily to digital mediation than others and we are collaborating to discover best practices.

For our advanced students, independent study and mentoring are critical. Independent study and mentoring can be conducted in person, if social distancing guidelines are followed, but there may be good remote options for that work as well.

Remote Delivery Resources:

The Canvas and Zoom platforms have been approved for class delivery and could include:

  • Instructional content can be streamed via Zoom and graded via Canvas.
  • Instructional content can be streamed via Canvas conference tools and graded via Canvas.
  • Instructional materials can be shared by Canvas in the form of assignments, and graded in Canvas.
  • All faculty are advised to load enough academic work onto Canvas in advance so that students can proceed for 1–2 weeks in the event of a temporary disruption to instruction.

On March 11, Gary Sullivan sent out information about the digital tools available for remote teaching and the capacity we are adding. Each option is suited to different pedagogical needs and we have highlighted the strengths of the tools below.

  • Slide Lecture: Canvas w/ Panopto
    Lecture Capture tool that allows audio/visual of speaker alongside slides
  • Group Critique: Canvas Blue Button Conference tool or Teams Meeting
  • Reading Discussion:
    Either a Teams meeting or a Zoom video conference meeting—the document can be shared if a .pdf file or the book can be had by individuals and the discussion can take place via video and audio in real-time (synchronous)
    Canvas if the reading is a .pdf file—have them read the reading, and then use the “discussion board” for the reading for an asynchronous commenting/responding tool.
  • Student Presentations to the Class: Teams or Zoom
  • 1:1 Critique: Teams one-to-one Video call
  • Team-Based Projects: Teams meeting
  • Technical Demonstration: Zoom or Teams

Training Resources—College and University:

  • Canvas: For UO training sessions, Carol Gering and the Online Team are offering Canvas trainings and information (with support links) on the Provost site. Additional support is available by calling 541-346-1942 or drop by Knight Library Room 19.Note: We may add College of Design–specific Panopto training and more information will follow soon.
  • Zoom: Added Capacity: 60 additional Zoom licenses have been acquired by the College.College of Design–specific training; Sean Sharp
    M283 computer lab
    Tuesday, March 17,10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
    Wednesday, March 18, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
    Thursday, March 19, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m.
  • Microsoft Teams: Microsoft Teams is available to all UO faculty and staff and is included in the Office365 products. This platform serves as a chat and collaboration platform where all conversations, meetings, files, and notes can be accessed by team members in one place. This is an evergreen service that is continually evolving and developing.Check out the short Microsoft Teams welcome video created by Microsoft.

    Get started using Microsoft Teams and find answers to common questions on the UO Service Portal website.

  • Requesting Tech Support:
    Please continue to use existing UO Service Portal request methods to
    submit a ticket.For 1:1 support, please email uoonline@uoregon.edu.

Facilities:

As the President indicated, the UO campus will continue to be open and operational. For many of our students continued access to studio spaces and campus resources is essential to their work. While primary instruction may be delivered remotely, students will have access to campus workspaces. Students can continue to use their studios, if they are assigned to a space. Other shared studio spaces will be accessible, but likely with some restrictions. We will be developing guidelines for safe use of campus spaces, including cleaning and social distancing.

In planning for your courses, I encourage you to design assignments that are not dependent on equipment or technically demanding processes.

Staff:

At this time, with the campus continuing to be open and operating, officers of administration and classified staff are expected to continue to perform their normal functions. We will do our best to continue to support our academic functions, while closely monitoring changing conditions to protect the safety and wellbeing of the entire campus community.

Anyone with underlying health concerns should reach out to their health provider and the university’s ADA coordinator 541-346-3159 or email at WorkplaceADA@uoregon.edu to assess appropriate accommodations.

Next Steps:

The College of Design Communications team will be creating webpages on the Faculty/Staff blog to house updates, resources, and guidance related to College operations. We’ll supply a link in a separate email as soon as those pages are available.

Clearly, this is a very fluid and challenging situation at multiple scales. We will do our best to keep you updated, offer guidance, and provide help and resources. As we navigate this serious situation together, I appreciate our sense of shared purpose and collective commitment to our students and colleagues.

My best,

Laura Vandenburgh
Interim Dean, College of Design


Links:

UO’s COVID-19 webpage (updated frequently)

UO’s COVID-19 FAQs

UO’s COVID-19 questions form

Update from President Schill, March 11, 2020

TEP’s ideas for teaching online

College of Design’s Faculty/Staff blog

UO’s guidelines for use of digital tools

Support Contacts:

Please direct specific questions not answered above as follows:

Technology Tools (Canvas, Zoom, MS Teams, Laptops & Cameras):
Sean Sharp, ssharp@uoregon.edu

Facilities/Classrooms, Studios and Workshop Spaces:
Laura Vandenburgh, lkvanden@uoregon.edu

Curricular Support: Your School and department leadership