Headlines say “Flu picks up steam across the U.S.”
Preparedness is the key.
All faculty should have all course content on Blackboard or some other web site for students who can’t get to class. Such Blackboard sites need not be elaborate. OET can help set up these “emergency” Blackboard courses but it does need to be done in advance. Lync and Yammer are also ways to communicate with students and faculty.
Students can’t make it to class but the faculty can
If a class with absences is normally scheduled in a classroom with Mediasite or Tegrity recorders, we can simply activate the recorder during class. We can then deliver these lectures to selected students. Note that we have fine granularity and can make the presentation available to individual students for instructor-specified time periods. These presentations can be sent live to the students.
If the class is not in a recording room, then the faculty member would have to agree to re-create the lectures for recording at another time in a recording room or we may be able to use one of our portable Mediasite units. Alternatively, OET can set up a faculty office or home office for recording using Tegrity.
For courses currently being recorded but not normally providing viewing access to in-class students, upon faculty request we can give access to selected (or all) in-class students for a faculty-specified period of time. Courses with recordings from previous semesters can have those recordings re-released in case of faculty absence.
OET absences
OET personnel have access to all necessary equipment from home. To such extent as the security of our own homes allows, we will continue operations as usual from home. We can consult with faculty by e-mail, skype, communicator or telephone. We can manage Mediasite recordings and delivery. We can provide on-demand help in the classrooms from home, also.
All faculty should have all course content on Blackboard or some other web site for students who can’t get to class. Such Blackboard sites need not be elaborate. OET can help set up these “emergency” Blackboard courses but it does need to be done in advance. Lync and Yammer are also ways to communicate with students and faculty.