[Faculty] Dealing with a Future Technology Disruption

[Yusuf Ozturk]

Engineering Faculty,



Please note the following recommendation from Dr. James Frazee regarding
bandwidth issues and alternate strategies.



Regards

Yusuf



Dear Deans,



While SDSU has extensive broadband access, reliable communications tools,
user-friendly webconferencing, and widespread smartphone adoption, with
more than 400 million students disrupted due to the spread of COVID-19, the
national telecommunications infrastructure may begin to experience delays
and could be temporarily at capacity due to the increased demand for
virtual instruction and remote work.



These problems may impact the ability to access on-campus systems and some
of our private cloud/vendor hosted platforms.  If the challenges of this
new scale arise, it will be up to the nation’s telecommunication providers
to increase their capacity.  How quickly these issues will be resolved will
be beyond our control.



If interruptions occur, it may be necessary for us to adjust our strategy
for virtual instruction to using lower-bandwidth options.



We would recommend the following:



   1. Consider lower-bandwidth options, like pre-recording content for
   asynchronous video playback, as opposed to providing synchronous (live
   online) instruction.
   2. Stagger virtual meeting times so everything doesn’t happen 8am – 5pm,
   M-F.
   3. Make use of webcams optional for students, and encourage students
   keep their microphone muted when not speaking
   4. Promote the following asynchronous tools in Blackboard:


   - Email
      - Discussion boards
      - Frequent, low-stakes quizzes
      - Assignment tool
      - Announcement tool with email sent
      - Blogs
      - Journals
      - Groups


   1. Continue to seek support from ITS if you have questions or are
   uncertain of your options, contact us at the Virtual Faculty
   Instructional Technology (FIT) Center <http://sdsu.zoom.us/my/sdsuits>
   Monday–Thursday from 8am – 6:30pm, and Friday from 8am – 4:30pm or request
   help via ServiceNow <https://sdsu.service-now.com/>.





*Can you please share this with your academic leaders and faculty right
away*? *This message is critically important and time sensitive*.



Thank you in advance!



Yours in service,



Dr. James P. Frazee
Chief Academic Technology Officer
Associate Vice President, Instructional Technology Services
San Diego State University
(619) 594-2893

http://its.sdsu.edu

[image: Image removed by sender.]
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