Home > School & Department Strategic Planning and Development

For Departments, Schools, & Programs

We have identified a number of issues that departments/schools may face along with proposed solutions to consider as you plan for this unique Fall quarter. While final decisions regarding Fall have yet to be made, it is clear that social distancing guidelines will continue. This means classroom space will be greatly impacted, and will require both creative solutions for face to face courses as well as shifting a significant fraction of your program’s Fall courses to a remote format.

Below are questions that we feel are key for you to consider for both face to face and potential remote courses. 

Considering Course Modality

For a fraction of your Fall curriculum, it may be possible to continue holding these courses in a modified face to face format, keeping social distancing guidelines in mind.

1. Are there particular courses that could be transferred into a larger classroom (likely one previously reserved for another of your courses that is being moved to a remote format) that fits an enrollment at least 3x higher than that course’s enrollment? 
2. Are there particular courses that could be taught in a hybrid format, where only ⅓ of the students enrolled would show up to a given class period? For example, a MWF course with a significant remote component could allow students to show up to one face to face class period a week.
3. Considering your Winter and Spring 2021 curriculum, are there courses that you could offer face to face to a much smaller enrollment in Fall, and then expand enrollment in those later quarters?

To decide which of your Fall curriculum should move to a remote setting, consider these factors:

1. Are there courses that have been taught either in an online or remote fashion previously? 
2. Are there face to face courses that traditionally leverage a significant amount of online components (Canvas quizzes, online homework systems, lecture podcasting, etc)?
3. Are there certain classes that you feel may be disproportionately impacted by a move to remote instruction (labs, studios, field courses)?
4. Are there faculty teaching in the Fall that better positioned (for a variety of reasons) to adapt their courses to a remote format?  
5. Are there courses currently taught as distinct course, but have enough overlap, that working together over the summer to develop them remotely would save time and resources?

Your Campus Support

The campus also wants to ensure that departments/schools have the appropriate resources as we consider Fall planning. We have developed a page for instructors as they consider specific components of their remote courses, but from a program perspective, we want you to be aware of various levels of support that area available. 

DTEI support:  DTEI resources include recorded webinars, other web resources,  office hours, online courses [link when ready] and the Digital Learning Institute. The Digital Learning Institute is a 7-week long program will provide faculty with the tools to build their own remote course with guidance from DTEI staff. At least 3 DLI cohorts (20 faculty/cohort) will be enrolled from Spring to Summer 2020. Please refer to the Course Design page for more details.

DTEI Graduate Fellows/School Based Support: Each School has been allocated DTEI Graduate Fellows that receive training in remote course delivery and are available through School Based programs.

Fully Online Course Development: DTEI is still supporting creation of fully online courses.  Faculty will work one-on-one with a DTEI instructional designer to completely build an online course or refresh an existing online course. The costs for this level of support can be found here. DTEI will support as many courses through this manner as possible, but note that our capacity will be limited.