March 10, 2020
This message is intended for all tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty (except School of Medicine) at IUPUI, IUFW, and IUPUC.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer
Dear Colleagues,
I write to you in your role as faculty at IUPUI, IUPUC, and IU Fort Wayne regarding President McRobbie’s recent message about planned responses to the COVID-19 virus. The request to shift all face-to-face instruction to the online environment for the two weeks following spring break undoubtedly will pose some challenges. However, I hope that you agree that the potential benefits to the health and safety of our community make the challenges worthwhile. I thank you in advance for the effort that it will take to alter your teaching activities at this point in the semester, and I would like to make three important requests:
- Please use the keepteaching.iu.edu website as a one-stop-shop for strategies on how to quickly move your course online. While there are many sophisticated tools within Canvas to support student interaction, the delivery of content and assessment, please don’t feel like you need to master all of them now. However, should you be interested in experimenting over break, our colleagues in the Centers for Teaching and Learning in Indianapolis, Columbus, and Fort Wayne are standing ready to assist you, as are volunteer faculty who are members of FACET (Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching) on our campuses.
- If you decide to meet with your students via Zoom or provide any content through video, please record the sessions to ensure that they remain accessible to your students, particularly those that may be hearing-impaired or who have learning disabilities. Kaltura is a tool within Canvas that can mechanically caption video using speech-to-text technology. The captions will still need to be checked (they are never going to be completely correct) but this tool will save a great deal of time. There is an easy-to-use caption editing interface within Kaltura where you can read through the mechanical captions and make any corrections necessary.
- Finally, please be as flexible as possible with our students, given the challenging circumstances. We have heard from many students with pre-existing health conditions who are experiencing high levels of anxiety as they consider how to cope with the challenges posed by COVID-19 while also pursuing their studies. We also anticipate that some students may have difficulty accessing the internet from their homes, which can place them at a disadvantage as we shift to online instruction. Please let your students know that you care about them as people as you support them as learners, and be as flexible with deadlines as possible as we navigate through this unprecedented situation.
President McRobbie has asked all campus leaders to direct members of their communities to a single source of information about the COVID-19 situation: protect.iu.edu. Thank you for all that you do to support our students, and thank you in advance for the effort that it will undoubtedly take to shift your practice over the next several weeks. Please know that I and other members of the IUPUI leadership team stand ready to assist you, and we welcome your questions and feedback in the weeks ahead.
Sincerely,
Kathy E. Johnson, Ph.D.
Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer
Professor of Psychology
