Preparing for Teaching During the Spring 2022 Semester
Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for your work in launching and facilitating a successful fall semester that is mostly in person with some remote learning. The efforts of balancing in-person and remote teaching at the same time are particularly appreciated.
We expect the spring semester to be similar to the fall in many ways. Most classes will be held in person, some classes will include students attending remotely, and application processes will be used for teaching specific courses fully in person or for a few faculty members to teach fully online. While we remain in a space where these options are needed, there is more certainty about how we will approach teaching and learning in the spring semester. The timing of this message about spring modalities, and the processes described below, is designed to get us ready for the spring class schedule to go live for students on or about Nov. 1 with modalities as accurate as possible.
- The vast majority of students and faculty will participate in teaching and learning in person this spring (with the exception of those programs that are typically fully online or hybrid).
- A small number of students, mostly undergraduates, are likely to be approved for fully remote status and will need to know which classes they can access.
- Some classes can be approved for in-person only instruction. Approval for the spring semester is needed even if a course was approved for the fall. Information about the approval process is provided below.
- An application process will be available soon for faculty members requesting fully remote teaching for the spring semester. Approval for the spring semester is needed even if a faculty member was approved for the fall.
- All faculty members must accommodate in-person students who need to temporarily switch to remote status for a limited time during the semester as a result of Covid protocols. As always, faculty members have the discretion to include students remotely if a student has an emergency situation preventing them from participating in person for a short period of time. As a result, even those faculty members who might start the semester without remote students in a course still need to prepare for the likelihood of delivering some hybrid instruction.
We all need to be prepared to move to fully online teaching and learning in the event that health and safety circumstances require such a temporary change.
Classes that are typically taught in an online format should be designated on the schedule as SYNC or ASYNC.
Instructor requests for in-person-only instruction: While it is our intention that virtually all in-person courses are available to remote-status students as well, we understand that there may be some classes that are particularly challenging to teach in an All-Modes format for an entire semester due to circumstances including equipment needs or the experiential nature of the course. To request that a course be designated for such in-person-only status, instructors must complete this form no later than Wednesday, Oct. 20.
Thank you again for your patience and persistence as we work together to support each other and our students.
