Thoughtful Preparation for Rapid Online Deployment

New coronavirus 2019 3D medical illustration

Topics:

Instructional Design

Published: Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Summary:

In light of all the conversations around the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), I thought I would offer up some resources to all of our Digital Learning friends.

We are currently working with the Provost Office, OIA and UITS to thoughtfully construct resources and a strategy for moving classroom instruction to remote delivery in the event of an emergency situation. Here are some resources for Teaching Continuity Strategies. This will serve as a living document as more resources become available and to update information in a timely manner.

Some other resources I want to highlight are from the Online Learning Consortium (OLC). They are working with many institutions to offer free workshops from experts on topics pertaining to online education. Many of you may know Angela Gunder, who was with Digital Learning for five years. She is now the VP of Learning for the OLC. We are thankful that she is still sharing her expertise with us. The University of Arizona has an institutional membership to this organization. Just register and you will have access to many online resources. Here are some of my recommendations for preparing to go online quickly:

Lastly and most importantly, we need to keep our students at the forefront when making decisions about delivery of instruction. Make sure to keep the lines of communication open and if they have any questions that you cannot address in regards to technology, please refer them to 24/7 IT Support at it.arizona.edu/get-support or (520) 626-TECH (8324).

Digital Learning, the Office of Instruction and Assessment and the Academic Technology team at UITS are working diligently to make any transition to remote instruction as seamless and easy as possible. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me.

Stay safe and healthy on your journey.

Additional University of Arizona Resources