[Faculty] FW: Resources for Teaching and Course Planning

[David Hayhurst]

FYI. David

 

From: Bonnie Zimmerman [mailto:bzimmerm at mail.sdsu.edu] 
Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 3:28 PM
To: Deans:; jlackrit at mail.sdsu.edu; kitano at mail.sdsu.edu;
swilliam at mail.sdsu.edu; mstover at mail.sdsu.edu; lamaster at mail.sdsu.edu;
catkins at sunstroke.sdsu.edu; lholler at mail.sdsu.edu; ppapin at sciences.sdsu.edu;
rgerman at mail.sdsu.edu; rdunn at sciences.sdsu.edu; Chairs and Directors :
Subject: Resources for Teaching and Course Planning

 

Deans, Associate Deans, Chairs and Directors: Please circulate this email to
all your faculty.  It includes some important information about available
resources for instructional materials accessibility and emergency
situations.  Bonnie

 

Colleagues:

As we begin a new--and challenging--academic year, I want to share some
information and resources that may help you with your teaching and course
planning.  This memo addresses two important issues: instructional materials
accessibility and what to do in the event of an emergency that requires
closing the university.

Instructional Materials Accessibility

Under the auspices of the Accessible Technology Initiative, SDSU has been
working on a plan to make all course materials (books, readers, web sites,
videos, etc.) accessible to all students, regardless of their learning
styles and needs.  Most of you have heard about this over the past two
years, and have already adopted many best practices.  The task force of
faculty, staff, and administrators that has been working on our plan had
hoped to continue making significant advances in meeting our goal of a fully
accessible learning community.  We still believe in that goal and are
committed to achieving it, but in recognition of our current situation, we
have regretfully decided to suspend work toward establishing additional
mileposts for the coming academic year.  Although we are not going to set
new goals, we do want to communicate the resources that are currently
available to you.  

We have made much progress in small things that make a big difference, such
as prompt ordering of textbooks.  You can find a handy list of specific
steps faculty can take to ensure student access to instructional materials
at http://access.sdsu.edu/instructmater.htm. We are also pleased to announce
the services of Jon Rizzo in Instructional Technology Services, whose
primary duty is to support faculty on accessible instructional materials.  I
ask for your continued attention to making your instructional materials
accessible to all learners.

The task force will also give full support to any of you who would like to
work with your department and/or college this year to increase awareness of
accessibility issues.  Let us know how we can help, and we will sit down
with you at any time (except our furlough days, of course!) to work out a
plan of action.

SDSU continues to take accessibility very seriously, but we also recognize
the demands upon the faculty and the reduction in work time we all face due
to furloughs.  We hope you will agree that this is a realistic, if sobering,
assessment of what we can do during these difficult times.  Please keep in
mind that accessibility considerations are NOT optional when a student with
an identified disability is enrolled in your class.  In that case, the
resources of Student Disability Services, as well as those of Instructional
Technology Services, remain available as always to help in this situation.
You may contact SDS at http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/sds/.


Campus Closure for Emergencies

Over the past years, SDSU has experienced emergency situations, specifically
wildfires, that have closed it down for short periods of time.  The H1N1 flu
outbreak last spring also raised the possibility of campus closure, and the
epidemic is predicted to be more pervasive this coming flu season.  Nor can
we forget about the possibility of a destructive earthquake, such as the one
that hit CSU Northridge in 1994.  It is important for faculty to think ahead
of time about the measures they would take should the university close for
several days or weeks during the semester.
 
The university's emergency preparedness plan requires that we have responses
ready for these situations.  We learned during the H1N1 flu event that we
were behind in our preparation, and began to develop a plan that we can now
communicate to the faculty.  Key to this plan is the use of our learning
management system, which currently is Blackboard.  During Spring 2009, there
were 1,669 active instructor accounts in Blackboard, although many
instructors use Blackboard minimally.  We encourage the rest of the faculty
to begin to use the system, and encourage all of you to learn enough about
its key features to support course work during a university closure.
 
Faculty should not attempt to work through their own email lists.  If you do
so, you risk violating university policy and/or privacy laws, and your lists
may not be accurate and up-to-date.  As an alternative, the Blackboard email
function is more secure and reliable than individual faculty group email
lists.  Instructional Technology Services provides support for learning and
effectively using Blackboard.  But they will be severely challenged to
support new users interested in more complex features on short notice,
particularly in emergency circumstances.  The best solution is to prepare
now for problems that might arise in the future.
 
ITS has developed a web site with specific recommendations for faculty and
graduate teaching associates to consider in preparation for a sudden campus
closure.  Please access their site at http://its.sdsu.edu/preparedness.

Thank you for your attention to these important matters, and I wish you the
best for a productive year.





Bonnie Zimmerman
Associate Vice President
for Faculty Affairs

 

Bonnie Zimmerman

Associate Vice President

for Faculty Affairs

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