Recommendations for Syllabi Language and Course Delivery

In a Special Faculty Senate meeting of July 7^th, the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Taskforce on Instruction and the Faculty Senate Distance Education and Learning Technology Committee presented a series of recommendations designed to assist faculty as ECU moves toward starting classes on August 10^th. The recommendations are linked and discussed below.

They are divided in two groups: recommendations for syllabi language and recommendations for course delivery. Not all recommendations apply to every faculty member or discipline. They are best practices put together by fellow faculty members, they are not mandates or official policies, although they refer and provide hyperlinks to official ECU policies.

Due to the dynamic nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to realize that the recommendations are based on the best information available at this time. If a faculty member has questions or concerns about these recommendations they should contact Chair of the Faculty Purificación Martínez (at martinezp@ecu.edu) immediately so she can assist them. If a faculty member has questions or concerns that are not addressed in the recommendations, they should bring them up to the attention of their supervisor immediately. Professor Martínez would also appreciate being notified of those questions or concerns in case it is necessary for the Faculty Senate to expand or change recommendations.

Recommendations for Syllabi Language

Recommendations for Syllabus Language (General) (pdf). These recommendations apply to all faculty teaching face to face or hybrid. It is very important that faculty include in their syllabi language in three particular areas:

• Face covering language. The language included in this document is recommended by the UNC System to all institutions in the system. Included also is the link to ECU’s regulation for students who do not comply with the mandate to wear face coverings.
• All courses should have assigned seating.
• Attendance should be taken should tracing become necessary.

Other considerations to take into account:

• Including face coverings and sanitation products as mandatory course materials will allow students to use financial aid in case they need to purchase some.
• Different disciplines/faculty might have more stringent requirements regarding prevention or cleaning, as can be seen below in the recommendations for laboratories.

Recommendations for Syllabus Language (Laboratories) (pdf). These recommendations will be useful to faculty teaching indoor and outdoor labs. They are in addition to, not in substitution of number 1 above.

Recommendations for Course Delivery

Recommendations for Design and Delivery of Courses (pdf). The benefits of using Canvas and Starfish.

Recommendations for Hybrid Options (pdf). These recommendations apply only to faculty teaching hybrid courses. They help faculty to determine what percentage they want to teach online, explain the number of hours that need to be taught online, and offer suggestions for syllabi language to describe to students the option selected.

Recommendations for Contingency Planning (pdf). These recommendations help faculty think through issues that might arise in case they become too sick to teach and another faculty member needs to cover their class. It is recommended that a “buddy” system be established before the beginning of each block. The responsibility of establishing this system should rest with the chair in consultation with faculty and dean.

Recommendations for Laboratory Practices (pdf). These recommendations will help faculty to design safe and healthy inside and outside laboratory courses. They discuss which responsibilities rest with the faculty and which with the students.

Recommendations for Field Trips (pdf). These recommendations will help faculty design safe and healthy field trips. Faculty should also be familiar with REDE “ECU Guidelines for Fieldwork in the COVID-19 Pandemic” available at https://rede.ecu.edu/covid-ramp-up/.

A Note About Using Outdoor Spaces to Teach

From Angela Anderson, University Registrar:

“The Space Allocation Committee reviewed these types of requests and found no process to schedule courses coded as lecture or labs outdoors and that there are many obstacles to address the scheduling of these type of course before the fall. Among those are: there is no process to schedule courses outdoors and many conflicts could occur as there is no way to implement a booking system for these spaces. Banner cannot record these spaces and students would not be aware that the scheduling is in outdoor environments that could lead to health (eg allergies) and accessibility issues. These environments are not “weather ready” (storms, rain, temperatures too high or too low, etc.) and no plan is presented for these instances. How and where the students would meet (again these spaces are not coded in the system) would be confusing and may lead to additional movement in the academic spaces (e.g., students trying to go from the classroom to the new location or the other way around) at a time that we are trying to minimize that. If courses have already included in the catalog outdoors activities (e.g., Fieldwork), we can see that some of the activities, if relevant, could be performed outdoors but at the present ECU does not have a clear way to address any of these concerns. Before we proceed with something similar, we would need review from many units including but not limited to DSS, the Registrar, Faculty Senate, and legal and modify the course description in the catalog. This could be further explored but as right now I do not see the possibility of officially support outdoors scheduling of classroom and  laboratories and much less design a setting for a classroom outdoors.”