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The View

July 31, 2020: COVID-19 Update

Faculty & Academic Staff Briefing #40

Dear Faculty and Academic Staff:

As we get closer to the start of the fall semester, the weekly daily brief will move to twice a week starting next week.  Look for a faculty brief on Tuesdays and Thursdays moving forward.

This brief includes:

  • Responses to Faculty Questions to Help With Course Planning
    • Definitions of Key Terms
    • Classroom Capacities and Room Change Requests
    • Upholding the Community Health Pledge
  • Return to On-Campus Work
  • Class Stagger Update
  • Library Support for Digital Course Materials
  • First-year Student Laptop Program
  • Recent Messages from the College & FAQs on the View

RESPONSES TO FACULTY QUESTIONS TO HELP WITH COURSE PLANNING

Definitions of Key Terms:

  • Flex-Hybrid Fully Virtual: These courses will be taught virtually; however, there may be an optional classroom-based component to the class.  
  • Flex-Hybrid Mixed: These courses will have a mix of in-person classroom and virtual instruction. Students who opt to participate from home will be able to access the in-person elements of the class remotely.
  • Remote: This term is used to describe a student or a faculty member who is participating in either of the flex-hybrid formats described above from an off-campus location. In designing Flex-Hybrid courses, it is essential to create a meaningful virtual experience for remote course participants regardless of format.

Classroom Capacities and Room Change Requests: We are currently working on finalizing classroom capacities that meet social distancing requirements, and then we will work to reassign classes with an in-person component to be able to accommodate as many students as possible.  If you want to know the specific estimated capacity (based on six-foot distancing) for a room you are scheduled to teach in now, ask your Dean or Operations Manager. You may also request a room change through your Dean, although we cannot guarantee that we will be able meet any particular requests at this time. 

Upholding the Community Health Pledge: There have been many questions about the Community Health Pledge, including how it will be enforced.  We are adhering to the State of Vermont Mandatory Guidance for College and University Campus Learning as the baseline for all safety and health guidelines, which stipulates: “All students, faculty and staff shall sign an institution specific health safety pledge that affirms the individual is familiar and willing to comply with the state’s COVID-19 restrictions and the institution’s health policies. Institutions shall enforce this contract, and immediately remove any student who violates major public safety components of the contract (such as quarantine requirements) from campus for the duration of the COVID-19 crisis.” As we work toward developing this pledge, we are also committed to creating a community culture around support and enforcement that will require a collective effort for implementation. However, violations of the pledge by students will be handled through the student conduct process. 

RETURN TO ON-CAMPUS WORK

The July 28th People Center Update announced that beginning Monday, August 3, faculty may access their offices to pick up items, drop off items, and be present briefly.  We are not yet prepared to have you working in your office. We will remain in this “access your office” state for the next two weeks, most likely. Before you return to work you will be required to complete the VOSHA training and sign the Champlain Health Pledge (coming next week).  Each day that you visit campus you will be required to complete a Health Tracking Form.  If  you are visiting classrooms please do not move the furniture as we are working on getting floor tape in place to indicate the new room set-ups.  Watch for updates from your Dean on your Divison’s plan for return to campus. 

The physical library remains closed as we work behind the scenes to prepare for a safe reopening. However, library staff are available to help you as you return to campus and prepare for fall teaching. Physical materials are available to you via contactless checkout. Visit the library’s website for a full description of service continuity and academic support for fall, and please contact referencedesk@champlain.edu with any additional questions or requests. 

CLASS STAGGER UPDATE

The July 2, July 16 and July 24 Faculty Briefs discussed our intended plan to stagger course schedules in order to reduce the density of student, faculty and staff movement between classes and throughout campus including the dining hall—a necessity based on current social distance modeling.  Additional considerations related to staggered on-campus dining heighten the need to make this change. Staggering the class schedule is imperative to our efforts to de-densify campus spaces and avoid the potential for large group gatherings or bottlenecks.    

The original plan included a 15-minute minimum break between class blocks and a 10-minute stagger between classrooms. However, we have updated our original plan to include a 10-minute minimum break between class blocks and a 10-minute stagger between classes. This greatly reduces the impact of the change on the schedule.  

Class start time will move to 8:00 AM from 8:30 AM as originally planned but the impact on the evening classes will be minimized.  To view the updated class matrix click here.  We plan to have course times updated in Colleague by the end of next week.  If you have concerns about the updated schedule we encourage faculty to talk to their Deans.

LIBRARY SUPPORT FOR DIGITAL COURSE MATERIALS 

The Library is working to provide access to digital course materials that will support flex-hybrid teaching. Though we cannot replace all course materials that students would normally be expected to purchase, we hope to help students avoid incurring extra costs and to substitute our physical course reserve system, which will be significantly reduced this Fall due to necessary quarantining periods of physical materials. 

If you need less than 10% of a text digitized

If a text is owned by the Library or by the Faculty and the use falls under Fair Use copyright guidelines, the library can legally digitize up to 10% or 1 chapter of the text, whichever is less. We will make these available as password-protected electronic reserves. The library is currently working with Ted Winokur on an electronic course reserve policy. 

If you need more than 10% of a text digitized

The Library can potentially assist by obtaining pay-per-use copyright permissions, purchasing an electronic copy of the text for the library’s collection, or finding alternative resources:

  • Obtaining pay-per-use copyright permissions involves seeking and paying for copyrights permissions to digitize texts that exceed the 10% that we could digitize under Fair Use. This initiative is possible due to a limited amount of institutional monetary support through COVID-19 emergency funding.
  • Purchasing an electronic copy for the Library’s collection may be possible, but not all texts are available in e-book format for purchase by academic libraries. We are especially limited in options to purchase electronic textbooks. 
  • Alternative Resources: The librarians can assist Faculty in obtaining alternative texts that the library already owns or that are available as Open Educational Resources.

Please enter any requests that you have for digital course materials in this form, including what chapter(s) or section(s) of each text are desired by Monday, August 10th. 

FIRST-YEAR STUDENT LAPTOP PROGRAM

All new incoming and transfer students will receive a laptop leased by the college at no cost to students. Each device will be specifically selected to meet the requirements of the student’s major and will include campus-licensed software that is program specific.

Students will have these devices for the duration of their Champlain career.  Students will have full software and hardware support through the ChampSupport team. Individualized assistance will be provided to students with internet needs appropriate to their program and local internet service options. Students attending classes on-campus will receive their laptop when they arrive on-campus. The College will ship computers to students studying remotely.  

We will also assist returning students who have hardware needs, especially those with financial need, with a College-funded hardware solution appropriate to their program.

RECENT MESSAGES FROM THE COLLEGE & FAQ’S ON THE VIEW

IMPORTANT RESOURCES

Course Planning:
CLT: Fall Flex Hybrid Ramp-Up Guide 
Flex-Hybrid Design Team Meeting Sign-up 
CLT Team Meeting Sign-up
Faculty Canvas Mentor List
The “BLURB form“

Campus Reopening:
State of Vermont Mandatory Guidance for College and University Campus Learning  
The View: Updates on the Coronavirus
The View: Academic Updates
Faculty Daily Briefing Email Archive

Student Resources:
Access to Coaching and Tutoring Support
Fall schedule info for students
Student scheduling “how to” video 1 and video 2.

RETURN TO MAIN COVID-19 UPDATES PAGE

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