You are teaching a face-to-face freshman class.  Your class has about 30 students and you meet them twice a week.  Students need to complete required readings before class. Readings are selected from text books or accessible through the library course reserve.  Class time is spent on lectures, group discussions, in class tests and student presentations.  Students also need to complete writing assignments and bring them to you in class. 

Just after the first week of the semester, your city has encountered a hurricane.  The entire campus needs to close for two weeks or even longer.  Your house is functioning with power and internet, but you have heard some students were evacuated, and they are staying in shelters far away from campus. They need to stay a long time before they can find housing. In the mean time, you are eager to communicate with students and provide a way for them to access an updated syllabus, course content, and tests, so that they can still participate and complete the course. 

To accomplish these goals, you can do the following:  

1. Email all the students regarding their situations, provide suggestions for staying safe, and give updates on class changes.  Student emails can be retrieved from the Canvas university sponsored learning management system (LMS), or through PeopleSoft.  
2. Text students the same email messages if you have their cell phone numbers. 
3. Use Canvas as a backup forum to post instructional materials and organize class activities.  
4. Select appropriate e-learning tools, such as online conferencing applications, to distribute class content and communicate with students.  

Are you prepared?

You can check your readiness level with the following 6 steps:

1.Do you know how to access your course shell?

• UH faculty can follow the tutorial to access Canvas.

2. Do you have a question about Canvas?

• Visit Canvas Help for Students or Faculty Help for Canvas to learn how to use the system.

3. Did you establish multiple communication tools?

Design a communication strategy based on availability.

• When Internet is available, you can use Canvas communication tools such as announcement, or email to reach students.
• Tutorial for creating email listserv. Please encourage students to check the email that they registered in Peoplesoft, because that is the email that appears in the instructor's roster.
• If your cell phone has a data plan, you can also use Canvas mobile app. Apple | Google Play

4. Did you contact your students?

• Contact your students, using one of the communication tools previously selected, regarding the upcoming assignment.
• Remind students to check back for course changes, revisions, and due dates

5. Did you discuss with your students how to submit assignments online?

• You can select one of the assessment tools below for students to submit an assignment:
  • Canvas assignment
  • Creating a test in Canvas
  • Canvas discussion board
  • Using email for students to submit papers or writing assignments.
    
    

  6. Did you decide how you will distribute your lecture?

  • Consider saving lecture recordings on a cloud based server and then sharing the link in Canvas or through email. Office 365, a UH supported product, provides OneDrive for hosting files in the “cloud”. You can find tutorials at https://www.uh.edu/infotech/services/microsoft365/onedrive-business/. You can also select third party products such as YouTube or Vimeo based on personal preference. Please be careful to protect your recordings if you select a commercial tool.
  • Think about adding your voice to your PowerPoint presentations.
  • Contact your Instructional Designer for customized assistance .