Dear Colleagues,
On Tuesday afternoon, I sent an email to the faculty that stated that “Our goal is to make enough classes available through remote delivery to reduce the chances of spread of COVID-19 in our community -- and to become ready to fully convert to remote instruction with a few days’ notice, if necessary.”
We’ve now decided that it’s necessary, and we know the number of days we have to make the transition-- it’s ten. We will move classroom instruction fully to remote synchronous mode after spring break on March 23 for the rest of the semester. All classes will meet at the same day and time that they currently meet (otherwise, student schedules will not be workable), but will be delivered remotely. Please tell your students how to be ready to attend class remotely on March 23 and how to connect.
Graduate research may continue in its present form. However, researchers and faculty advisors must consider whether or not these efforts can be done remotely, which is preferable. All other instruction must move to some sort of remote instruction. Some courses will be much more readily converted to remote approaches than others. Even for those courses that seem, at first glance, to offer insurmountable odds, we ask that you take an open and creative approach to solving the problem that we now confront as a campus. We can’t have students lose the possibility of graduating on time because of COVID-19.
We understand that there is no single solution to remote instruction, because of the different kinds of courses, pedagogies, and learning goals that we have for teaching across our curriculum. To help you with this process, we have organized a support team to answer the pedagogical questions and technological needs you now may have. As soon as you complete the NEEDS ASSESSMENT SURVEY that came from my email Tuesday at 4:01pm, you will be contacted by the Remote Delivery Specialist Team for further guidance and help throughout this transition to remote delivery.
If you are faculty in architecture and music, you did not receive a survey and will be contacted by the remote delivery team with next steps by Friday.
You can immediately start exploring the various options you have for migrating your class with this Reimagining Your Course For Remote Delivery Guide:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oiSOWbEfriEV_E4i9hBfsuYaWpB18pvkef0Z5Vz8M6U/edit?usp=sharing
You can explore the various tools available to you by visiting: https://oit.rice.edu/remote-teaching-resources
You can also attend one of the 4 School Group Orientations listed below. Please bring your laptop with you when you attend so that you can get zoom pro installed if you don’t have it, learn how to use it and other technologies for classes of all sizes, and experiment with advanced canvas features, among other teaching tools.
| TODAY March 12 | School of Social Sciences 1:00-2:30pm | Kraft Hall 110 |
| TODAY March 12 | School of Natural Sciences 3:30-5:00pm | Herring Hall 100 |
| TODAY March 13 | Jones School of Business 9:00-10:00 am | McNair Hall 212 |
| TODAY March 13 | School of Humanities 10:30-12:00 | Kyle Morrow Room (Fondren) |
| TODAY March 13 | School of Engineering 1:00-2:30pm | McMurtry Hall |
| TODAY March 13 | Shepherd School of Music 3:00-4:30pm | Alice Pratt Brown 1133 |
Remote Meeting Information for School Orientations is listed below. Remote attendance for each session is limited to 100 people. Recordings of these sessions will be available afterwards through https://oit.rice.edu/remote-teaching-resources
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Topic: Social Sciences Remote Teaching Training
Time: Mar 12, 2020 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/610925163
NATURAL SCIENCES
Topic: Natural Sciences Remote Teaching Training
Time: Mar 12, 2020 03:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/529562338
JONES SCHOOL
Topic: Jones Business School Remote Teaching Training
Time: Mar 13, 2020 09:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/311762473
HUMANITIES
Topic: Humanities Remote Teaching Training
Time: Mar 13, 2020 10:30 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/222105470
ENGINEERING
Topic: Engineering Remote Teaching Training
Time: Mar 12, 2020 03:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/616198160
SHEPHERD SCHOOL
Topic: Shepherd School Remote Teaching Training
Time: Mar 13, 2020 03:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/909361840
If you can’t attend your School training, you can find the recordings at https://canvas.rice.edu/courses/31333/pages/remote-teaching-training-recorded-sessions
Additionally, webinars will be offered this in the next few days. Scheduled and future training sessions will be posted at the link above and we will let you know when the first one is scheduled.
These are extraordinarily complicated times, and I’m grateful to be able to partner with such extraordinary people. Thank you for your creativity and dedicated efforts on behalf of our students.
Warm regards,
Seiichi