COVID-19 Teaching Resources for Arts and Sciences Faculty
Welcome to the Arts and Sciences Flexible Hybrid Learning Environment (FHLE) resource website. FAS Flexible Hybrid Transition Team has created this page to be an informative and (eventually) interactive document to help you prepare pedagogically for the coming semester. This is a living resource, subject to frequent updates. It was written by faculty for faculty with content aimed specifically at everyone teaching in the Arts and Sciences.
This website is intended to complement the University’s comprehensive plan, Fordham Forward, the more general Getting Started in the Flexible Hybrid Environment, and your own department’s initiatives. Please make sure you work with your departmental norms, guidelines, and best practices as well.
We also ask that you please keep issues of diversity, anti-racism, equity, and access at the forefront of your mind when creating class groups and class plans. Part of that commitment entails continually being in the process of examining our curriculum and our teaching for exclusivity, inequity, and racism. All of our students deserve and require equal access to the educational experiences we are providing.
How To Use This Site
This site collects information about FHLE generally, guidelines for A&S policy issues that may come up in FHLE specifically, and pedagogy resources, all in one place. Use this website to help adapt your syllabi for FHLE, anticipate likely problems, help address challenges before you begin the semester, and throughout the semester to find quick answers to immediate questions. You are invited to read it comprehensively, but we have designed it so that faculty can scroll and skim. Links are listed in alphabetical order under each topic.
Here are some key documents to help you prepare for the semester:
Table of Contents
- FAS Policy Guidelines for a Flexible Hybrid Environment
- Before You Start Teaching –– the FHLE Syllabus
- Course Tools and Resources
- Teaching Praxis/Course Delivery
- Contact the FAS Flexible Hybrid Transition Team
FAS Policy Guidelines for a Flexible Hybrid Learning Environment
As announced by the Provost in early May, Fordham has adopted a flexible hybrid model of teaching and learning in 2020-2021. In this approach, faculty are responsible for developing both synchronous and asynchronous components to their courses for 2020-2021. The flexible hybrid model allows all of us to plan effectively, even under the uncertainty we are facing. It can be adapted to the needs of different disciplines, and it can be applied to various circumstances.
This section contains basic policy guidelines and what if’s. If you have additional questions, please contact [email protected].
- Academic Freedom and Intellectual Property
- Blackboard as the Recommended Student/Faculty Access Portal
- Course Segmentation, Credit Hours, Accreditation and Compliance Considerations
- Department and Committee Meetings
- Gaining Access to Campus
- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fall 2020 Updates
- Office Hours
- Recording Online Synchronous Course Components
- Recording In-Person Synchronous Course Components
- What to do in case of: (coming soon)
- Faculty Illness
- Student Illness
- Student Non-Compliance
- Request to Switch Instructional Modalities During the Semester
Before You Start Teaching –– the FHLE syllabus
Within FHLE, syllabi look different, as there is new information to communicate to students. You can start by using this template for course design. In addition, this section is intended to provide you with some new language and new ideas about how to identify course policies that will be most effective for FHLE. Your students may never have taken a FHLE course before, and we encourage you to set guidelines and policies that will teach them how to learn in this new environment. Please be as clear as possible in your expectations for student learning, as the change of modality may have unpredictable effects on student performance. Your department may also issue syllabus guidelines. Please make sure you consult those as well.
We strongly encourage you to post your syllabus on Blackboard and make it available to students at least one week ahead of class, so that they are prepared for the first day. For those of you teaching in-person or hybrid, you may want to consider holding class remotely for the first week while you figure out course segmentation and logistics.
- Accessibility and Equal Access of Course Materials
- Attendance Policies
- Assessment
- Online Exams, Proctoring: Recommendation and Guidance
- Challenges of the FHLE: Trauma, Mental Health, Disability, and Accommodations
- Course Segmentation Guide
- Dividing Your Syllabus into Modules and Learning Objectives
- Required and Suggested Syllabus Language
- Resources for Online Students
- Technology in the FHLE (coming soon)
- Sample Syllabi (coming soon)
Course Tools and Resources
Here we have gathered resources and information sent out in previous FAS communications as well as some additional materials and references.
- The Blackboard Classroom Interface
- Course Continuity Website (From Spring 2020)
- Blackboard Course Readiness Checklist
- FLEX1000 (intensive course on flexible hybrid learning, register using this brief form)
- How to Get Help
- Getting Started in a Flexible Hybrid Environment
- Learning at a Distance
- Twice Over Podcast
Teaching Praxis/Course Delivery
The initial documents gathered here were compiled by one of the subgroups within the FAS Flexible Hybrid Transition Team. This Pedagogy Working Group focused on recommendations of best practices for teaching in the areas of course development, communication, delivery, and assessment; and for learning in the areas of accessibility, synchronous and asynchronous activities, knowledge demonstration, and community-building.
Core Courses
- Building Community in Core Courses
- Co-Curricular Engagement and Approaches
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Student Learning: Assessment
- Student Learning: Asynchronous
- Student Learning: Synchronous
Graduate Courses
- Graduate Course Guiding Principles (coming soon)
- Graduate Courses: Building Community
- Graduate Courses: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Graduate Courses: Instruction and Communication Strategies
Discipline-Specific Examples
- The Arts
- STEM Disciplines