Instructional continuity website and support

Dear faculty, instructional staff and teaching assistants teaching in Spring 2020:

Now that the chancellor has announced that alternative delivery to face-to-face instruction will begin on March 23 (immediately following spring break) and continue through at least April 10, we want to direct you to the following UW–Madison website for general guidance, suggested strategies and tools, and where to reach out for additional support: https://instructionalcontinuity.wisc.edu. To support your efforts, we are organizing colleagues (with campus-sponsored resources) who can help you. If you need assistance in developing your alternative delivery course plans, please reach out to this team at: instructionalcontinuity@provost.wisc.edu.

Even through this period of disruption, we are committed to doing all we can to maintain UW–Madison’s stellar reputation for teaching and learning. Whether through in-person or alternative delivery, given what we know now, we expect to continue instruction for the full academic semester, which runs through the last class day, May 1.

Please consider these initial steps as you begin planning and executing the next phase of your class:

If you are not using Canvas, please move your course into Canvas now. Campus is enhancing our support for Canvas and it is the learning platform that is most familiar to students. We are unable to support multiple platforms given our tight timeframe.
Develop a social distancing strategy for your course. Consider video-recording your lectures. Think about online submission of homework and other assessments. Identify and explore online chat options and other means of instructor-student and student-student engagement. Stepping back, there are a variety of potentially viable possibilities: a course could go fully online, one might incorporate distributed online group work with TA check ins, smaller classes might incorporate independent study, effective learning might occur through online readings and weekly quizzes. We rely on your wisdom to make the best of a difficult situation.
Keep digital records of grades and assessments up-to-date and in a location where other staff in your program can access them on short notice, if needed. We highly recommend using the Canvas grade book to do so.
We know this situation is disruptive and challenging for students and instructors. For now, we are allowing clinical rotations to continue. For example, education students can keep working in the Madison Public Schools; and health science students can keep working in clinical rotations.
A critical driver of our campus policy is the need to significantly reduce density in our dormitories. Making other exceptions to our decision to prohibit face-to-face instruction would require the university to provide housing to allow students to meet course obligations created by these exceptions. We need to reduce the risk of community contagion in a dormitory to acceptable levels, which is a major factor in our decision to cancel face-to-face instruction, at least between March 23 and April 10.

Please keep your department chair informed about your plans. Chairs, please report into your school/college Dean, who in turn are keeping the Chancellor (and Provost) informed. We do not want any students to fall through the cracks. Those hoping to graduate this Spring are feeling particularly vulnerable.

Thank you for your support during this challenging situation. Our goal is to work together to continue to provide high-quality instruction and learning, and keep you, our students, and the campus community safe. If there is an insurmountable problem moving your course to a format with no face-to-face instruction or if you have concerns, please be in touch with your Dean as soon as possible or share them with Provost Scholz, at provost@provost.wisc.edu.

Stay up-to-date on news about campus operations at: http://covid19.wisc.edu.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Karl Scholz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Steve Cramer
Vice-Provost for Teaching and Learning