March 18, 2020—Thank you! I cannot fully express my gratitude for all of your efforts to rapidly move to alternative delivery of instruction. Our goal is to maintain the continuity of our students’ educational experience in these difficult circumstances.
On the morning of Thursday, March 19th, we will be sending an email to all students letting them know the status of their courses. I am asking that AFTER 10 a.m., each of you reach out to the students in your courses to let them know of your plans as it relates to the changes in your course(s). I encourage you to use Canvas to contact your students. I know your students are eager to hear from you and learn what you have planned for them. Please make sure you have communicated with your students by the end of the day Friday, March 20.
For the remainder of the semester, please be as flexible as possible with our students. Each student is in a different circumstance. We are preparing resources to help our students; below are a few that I want to make you aware of.
- The website SP20ClassFinder.unt.edu contains a list of all courses and their mode of delivery.
- The website LearnAnywhere.unt.edu is available to support students in their transition.
- Frequently Asked Questions are posted at HealthAlerts.unt.edu. The most important for you to be aware of are:
- If a student in your class does not have a computer, laptops will be available for students to checkout for the remainder of the semester at Willis Library. Mobile hotspot devices, for students who need wifi, are also available for checkout. Students can make a request at Lib.Support@unt.edu.
- If a student does not have access to their textbook or other critical course materials because they are not in Denton, please contact Maryann.Venner@unt.edu in University Libraries and she will work with you to try to provide digitization where possible.
- Advising, tutoring, counseling and all student support services will continue to be available to students virtually. Please continue to make referrals to support services as you would normally.
- If you have a student that is requesting an accommodation, please refer them to the Office of Disability Access.
- We have students in all types of unique circumstances, such as trying to return to their home country before that country’s border closes, students with limited internet access, students caring for children, and many other issues. We need to be as supportive and as accommodating as possible over the course of the coming weeks.
We will continue to support you in every way we can. If you need help with Canvas or Zoom please email clearhelp@unt.edu, as you can imagine the CLEAR team is working as fast as they can to support all of our faculty through this transition. I also ask for your patience as we work through software issues. We have been able to get a solution for Adobe Creative Cloud, but we are in a cue with other universities. As soon as we have software solutions your IT team will be communicating further.
Know I am thinking of our faculty and staff every day. Your deans and I are meeting every day and I am sharing our progress with your department chairs on a daily basis in written briefings. They are regularly communicating with me about your needs. We are working as quickly as we can to put in place the support needed for our faculty, staff and students. Know that everyone on our leadership team is focused on making sure we do everything we can to make the remainder of this semester proceed as smooth as possible for you.