Class schedule and Exams during COVID-19 crisis
Dear Colleagues,
I hope you are all staying healthy in the global Corona pandemic, that has radically affected our lives and the lives of our students. It has exposed the discrepancies between various constituents: faculty, staff and students and their ability to cope with this grave crisis. While some of us, in the population at large, may be able to continue operating at a distance, others have seen their livelihood completely shattered.
It is in this context, I invite you all to show additional empathy, to respond to some of our students’ concerns and problems, while at the same time making every effort to keep our Mission of quality education alive.
Few points I would like to share with you:
- Try as much as possible to keep regular contact with students by scheduling regular live office hours via Webex or any other platform.
- For lecture courses, it is apparent that Asynchronous means [pre-recorded lectures using Panotpto or others] are a better for students to follow the course than synchronous methods (Live streamed classes using WebEx or others). Follow up live sessions and/or live office hours should be regularly scheduled.
- There are numerous advantages to recorded lectures such as record/view at convenient times, works well with slow internet connection, and could be reused in the future.
- For courses that are delivered in synchronous means (live streamed) please keep the same schedule as in-class, and do not go live at other times that may conflict with other courses.
- Do not ‘dump’ readings on students, and expect them to do it all on their own.
- Schedule your exams during class time or later in the evening after making sure that all students does not have any time conflict
- Exams should be reconfigured to respond to this situation. Any changes from the normative process must be cleared with the department chair. An online exam guideline is being prepared and shall be shared with you, however it is important to keep in mind that in these situations substituting exams with interactive and take home work is more robust.
Please stay safe and healthy! Together we will uphold the Mission and the Values of LAU and we will come out of this crisis stronger than ever before.
Sincerely,
George Nasr
Provost