Welcome to autumn 2009! I hope that summer provided you with a chance for rest and renewal. I am looking forward to the year ahead and our work together with our students.
I want to communicate with you preparations for our response to H1N1 flu and some suggestions for you as faculty. We have been monitoring the ongoing developments of this strain of flu and working with all units on campus to be prepared. I am grateful for the collaboration among groups and believe our level of preparation is very good. Attached is a one page summary advisory flier that I encourage you to print and post in your office. It will help us all remember basic actions we can take and includes the Health Center Web site and Seattle & King County Public Health Web site.
What You Can Do
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Take care of yourself! Be judicious with welcoming handshakes and high fives! Carry a personal hand sanitizer and have wipes in your office for shared surfaces. If you become ill with the flu, stay home until you have been fever-free (without medication) for 24 hours. I encourage you to consider getting both a seasonal flu shot from your health care provider now and the H1N1 shot(s) which should be available in mid-October.
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Be open regarding class attendance policies. Most students will not be able to get a doctor’s note. Extend leniency with assignments and exams. If students get the flu, they should stay home until they have been fever-free (without medication) for 24 hours.
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Encourage good hand hygiene in your classes.
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If a student shows symptoms in your class, ask them to go to the Health Center. You can encourage them to leave class, but you cannot require them to leave.
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If you become ill stay home and be prepared with plans for your class. The majority of you already use online resources for your classes and this is the best way to keep the course moving if you are absent. If a significant number of your students are absent this may be the best way to continue the class as well.
We have a good selection of online tools available to faculty if we need to finish a term but can’t meet face-to-face. Here is a quick summary from David Wicks:
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Blackboard – asynchronous and synchronous discussions, online quizzing, document repository, plagiarism detection software, gradebook
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Adobe Connect – Synchronous conferencing, chat, audio, video
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Camtasia Relay – Asynchronous content delivery, professor’s voice with whatever is showing on the computer display. Could also be used for student presentations.
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Jing – Screencasting tool that can be used for short student presentations (under five minutes) or by faculty and students to share questions and responses to problems with discipline specific software.
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Skype – Two- or three-way video conferencing that may be useful for office hours.
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VoiceThread – Asynchronous text/image/audio/video comment/discussion tool. Can be useful for situation where student voice/video is preferred over text-only comments.
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Scanning and audio/video digitizing services.
These tools and services are already being used by faculty in all schools, which means we have a number of practitioners who could assist peers if emergency use is required. It might be a good idea to identify these people. I would be happy to work with you on developing a list of instructional technology leaders in each school.
Care for Students
Plans to care for students with the flu are in place. Residential students will self-isolate in their rooms, and our residence life staff will check in on them. We are asking students to be prepared with a “flu kit” and will have food delivered from Gwinn to those with a meal plan. Letters will soon be going to commuter students and graduate students providing them with information regarding our plans and their health.
Let’s hope and pray that we can remain as healthy as possible. I appreciate your support in this matter.
