COVID-19 Resources for COALS Faculty and Staff

On April 29, 2020, Texas A&M president Michael Young released a message detailing the Governor’s executive orders and the expiration of Executive Order GA-14 on April 30. This message also details current and standing practices as well as preliminary guidance for the university moving forward into the summer.

• Read the April 29, 2020 message from the president

Per the April 29, 2020 message from Texas A&M president Michael Young, the university will still deliver Summer I, Summer II, and 10-Week Summer Sessions online. Read the April 29, 2020 message from the president

All summer courses offered through Texas A&M University in the first, second, and 10-week summer terms (including the May “minimester”) will be delivered online. The Provost’s Office had hoped to resume coursework on campus for the second summer session, but with preregistration underway, some uncertainty on the apex of COVID-19, and the need for both our students, faculty, and staff to plan, the decision has been made to move forward with the decision to teach all summer courses online.  

As previously announced, distance education differential tuition will not be charged for online courses this summer at an individual course level for all students in traditional degree programs. For students enrolled in distance education degree programs, there is no change in how they will be charged.

The full announcement can be read online.

For those wanting to record a Zoom session for later/repeat use, here are the ZOOM instructions that will allow faculty members to record a class session without capturing either the video or the name of the student in the course should a student comment or ask a question. 

This approach was tested by Academic Innovation and reviewed by the Registrar for compliance with FERPA.  By removing the video and the name, this will allow faculty to be able to use the recording in future semesters if so desired. 

If you know of a student who has a known or suspected positive COVID-19 infection, please contact the Office of the Dean of Student Life at studentlife@tamu.edu or by phone at 979.845.3111.  This will allow them to contact the student to see if further support is needed. 

Here are some reminders from the TAMU Office of Risk, Ethics and Compliance:

Recording Zoom Meetings

It is suggested that the host of such an online meeting only allow recording of the discussion in accordance with what would be recorded in the normal course and scope of operations.

This measure is being taken to protect the privacy of meeting participants as required by university IT rules and SAPs. In addition, participants wanting to record must obtain permission from the host and all participants in the meeting. Any recording should only be used for university business purposes. Too, such recordings may be subject to disclosure through open records, and the recordings may be subject to records retention requirements.

ANY class recordings that include students are considered education records and thereby subject to FERPA. Recordings that show students may only be kept and used by the instructor of record for the current class and section in which the student participates. These recordings may not be used in subsequent semesters and, under record retention policy, should be retained for one year after the course completion.

Recorded Zoom files

• Cloud Recordings
  • Only individuals with a TAMU NetID and Password will be able to view TAMU Zoom cloud recordings. This is a recent TAMU change to Account Settings.
  • Only the host is allowed to download a Zoom cloud recording. This is a recent TAMU change to Account Settings.
• In-Meeting Recording (applicable to Cloud or Local Recordings) 
  • The host controls the ability to record. Unless the host grants permission to a participant, no other recordings can take place within Zoom.
  • When a meeting is being recorded in Zoom, “Recording…” appears in the upper left-hand corner. This is visible to all participants.
• Local Recording
  • In account settings, it is possible to allow the host and participants to record the meeting to a local file.
  • The host may give participants the ability to record locally. By default, this is not enabled. You as the host have to enable this in your Zoom Advanced Settings.

Added security for Zoom and Zoom meetings

• Zoom In-Meeting Security Tab added to Host’s Meeting Toolbar (available with Zoom client version 4.6.10):
  • Please update your Zoom client to version 4.6.10. If you are unable to, please contact your IT department or Help Desk Central for assistance.
  • How to check your Zoom client version
  • Best practices for securing a virtual classroom in Zoom
• Microsoft Password Vulnerability
  • Resolved with Zoom client version 4.6.9 which was available for download on 4/3/2020.
• Zoombombing
  • TAMU has issued recommended guidelines for setting up a secure Zoom meeting. More information can be found in this link.

The Office of Risk, Ethics and Compliance offers the following guidelines for faculty and instructors who plan to use Zoom for live, online proctoring of exams to record students.

• It is recommended that faculty add verbiage to exam guidelines that are distributed to students ahead of the exam to disclose that the faculty member/TA will be recording the proctored exams.
• This information should be repeated at the start of the exam once the recording has been turned on.
• Additionally, when students register for the exam via Zoom, faculty may add a disclaimer that the session will be recorded.
• If the students are recorded and they can be identified, the portion that shows the student(s) would be an educational record under FERPA.
• Only the instructor and/or TAs should have access to the recording. Recordings should be retained for one year from the date of the exam.

Many of you have asked about an exam proctoring solution, such as Examity. Unfortunately, these companies are being impacted as well and have stated they will not be providing proctoring services through the end of March and likely through the end of the semester.

That being the case, the Provost’s office recommends considering alternative exam options provided on keepteaching.tamu.edu. We’ve also put some resources below.

• Resources
  • Harvard Business School Publishing: Moving your Class Online
  • Indiana University – Bloomington:
    • Alternatives to Traditional Exams and Paper
    • Authentic Assessment
    • Rubric Creation & Use
  • University of California – Berkeley: Alternatives to Traditional Testing
  • University of Minnesota: Alternative Assessments
  • TAMU, Dr. Kim Dooley: Authentic Assessment Toolkit:  Strategies to Reach and Teach the Millennial Generation
  • TAMU Center for Teaching Excellence’s Assessment Resources
  • Learner Assessment in Online Courses: Best Practices & More

We have also assembled a group of colleagues/faculty with a wide range of experience and expertise in the area of online learning and online assessment methods that would be available for support. Simply fill out the form below with your information, your question or your support need and we will get someone in touch with you to help.

No. When creating alternative forms of assessment or for lab courses, faculty cannot pass expenses onto students. Students cannot be required to buy supplies to complete courses.

To support COALS faculty in converting their courses to online format, we have listed a variety of resources and links above. We have also assembled a group of colleagues/faculty with a wide range of experience and expertise in the area of online learning and online assessment methods that would be available for support. Simply fill out the form below with your information, your question or your support need and we will get someone in touch with you to help.

If you currently have no content online, before submitting the form, please review the guide at https://provost.tamu.edu/keep-teaching and complete Zoom and Google Classroom training that can be scheduled at https://provost.tamu.edu/keep-teaching#training.

Any further questions regarding faculty assistance, converting courses, modifying learning outcomes and more can be emailed to coals-eadean-office@ag.tamu.edu.

Synchronous online delivery must be at the originally scheduled class time to avoid scheduling conflicts for students.  You may convert a synchronously delivered class to an asynchronously delivered class.

Classes will resume online in week 10 of the spring semester, so for a 3 credit course there are 15 faculty instruction hours remaining and 30 out of class student hours remaining. Faculty can choose to “chunk” their instruction into shorter portions (such as multiple 5-10 minute video segments) in order to reach their 15 total hours.

There is no good solution for online proctored exams, so faculty are strongly encouraged to consider substituting assignments for exams. Faculty will be responsible for communicating the changes to their courses to their students. Every instructor will need to post an updated syllabus.

OGAPS is currently working on a process to fit the needs of everyone given the current COVID-19 restrictions on personal interaction and the university moving to distance instruction. They hope to have that process live in the next couple of days and plan to communicate it to faculty and department advisors once it is finalized.

The aim is to have the process be simpler and more streamlined than having to route through everyone and collect electronic signatures. If, however, in the meantime you want to submit forms with electronic signatures, you can submit them to ogaps@tamu.edu.

No, in many cases there are online resources with video content that may be able to support your instruction. 

The university has an account with LinkedIn learning that has video content on a wide range of topics. Any student or faculty member with a NetID can access these video training modules and lessons.

Another resource is JoVE Video.  TAMU Libraries has a subscription to JoVE content.  JoVE is providing all of their Education video content free to use in STEM teaching efforts through June 15th.  

How to Gain Free Access:  Interested academic administrators, educators, and students can fill out this form or simply reach out to access@jove.com to set up an account.

To protect our community, Texas A&M University’s leadership has determined that all undergraduate lecture and lab courses must be taught online.  Per the Vice Chancellor and Dean for Agriculture and the Executive Associate Dean for the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, there will be no exceptions approved by their offices. All undergraduate and graduate courses should be converted to online-only format.

Ultimately, you want to keep your instruction simple and accessible. In “How to Make Your Online Pivot Less Brutal” by Dr. Kevin Gannon, he notes:

“Good pedagogy requires:

• Regular, effective, and compassionate communication with students.
• Flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Transparency in course materials, like tests, assignments, and activities.”

Every instructor has an eCampus site for each of their courses.  You can use the “Send Email” tool to send email messages to each student registered for the class.  The list of email addresses can be copied from one of those communications into the Zoom invitation space.  You can also get an email list out of Howdy! by downloading your roster as an Excel file and then cutting and pasting that from Excel into Zoom.

Zoom is a full-featured web collaboration tool available to all Texas A&M University students and employees including unlimited meetings with up to 300 participants at a time. Stream your lecture, meet with your team, or have a quick one-on-one meeting with high quality audio and video.

Zoom recording allows you to caption and save a video for future reference or send to those unable to attend. NOTE: It is more efficient to record your Zoom meeting/class to your computer than the cloud. Zoom also features intuitive screen sharing, whiteboarding and much more including captioning. Learn more at TAMU IT’s Zoom Videoconferencing webpage.

Instructors may record lectures in their classroom at their normal scheduled time or at other work stations on campus.

The audience for keepteaching.tamu.edu is those instructors who do not already use all the tools available on eCampus, because Zoom and Google classroom will be easier and quicker for them to transition materials.  Some materials for eCampus have now been added. If you already use eCampus for more than just files and need support, please send a request to coals-eadean-office@ag.tamu.edu and one of our distance education experts will respond to you quickly.

No, you must create alternative assignments to fulfill the required course credits.  Classes will resume in week 10 of the spring semester, so for a 3 credit course there are 15 faculty instruction hours remaining and 30 out of class student hours remaining.

Sending attachments by regular email is not secure and should be avoided. However, if a faculty member has or uses a TAMU Gmail account, they can turn on “Confidential mode” (the highlighted icon in the composition menu bar) when composing/sending the email. They can set an expiration date as well as require a passcode to send the scanned hard copy back to the student.

If you teach a class that has an interpreter, transcriptionist, or any other resource designed to assist a student with an accommodation, please be sure to collaborate with Disability Resources about how these accommodations will be implemented in an online environment and/or what alternatives might need to be considered. See also Accessibility with ZOOM. 

You will be contacted by someone from Disability Resources. We have distance education experts available to support you to take care of those requests. Contact coals-eadean-office@ag.tamu.edu to request support.

There have been reports this morning of people outside A&M joining synchronous lectures that are being offered as Zoom meetings and harassing our students via the “Chat” feature.

You may wish to: (a) require a password to join your meeting (this may be a bit cumbersome, since you have to disseminate this information via email) or (b) require participants to authenticate before joining your meeting (your students can easily do this with their NetID and password).

You can toggle this option for all meetings that you host by editing your Zoom profile (see screenshot below).

The following information comes from the Office of the Registrar, based on direction from the President & Provost’s Office.

For undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in College Station and Galveston terms:

• Changing to S/U grading – Provides information for students on how to make the selection in Howdy.   Advisors can share this with students if needed.
• Spring 2020 Q-Drop Information (for advisors) – NEW process for entering Q-drops in Compass through the April 24^th extended deadline.  As indicated, all drops as of March 16, 2020 will be assigned a W grade so to not count towards the State or institutional drop limits.  
  • The Office of the Registrar is working to identify any Q-drops between March 16-20, 2020 and will update these from a Q grade to a W grade.  No action is required for these updates.
• Student initiated withdrawals online – The deadline has been extended to permit students to submit withdrawal requests online in Howdy through 5 p.m., Friday, April 24^th.  
  • Dean approvers will have until 5 p.m, Tuesday, April 28^th to take action for any pending withdrawal submitted online.
• U and F grades – These grades will be excluded from GPA calculations, as indicated on #7 of the Faculty Senate Recommendations.  Our office will run a process to exclude these grades after grading has been completed. 

We appreciate this is an unprecedented situation and stressful for those not accustomed to using technology.  Faculty members are obligated to fulfill the terms of employment for the current fiscal year (University Rule 12.01.99.M2) and so you must teach for the remainder of the semester.  We have distance education experts available to support you. Contact coals-eadean-office@ag.tamu.edu to request support.  

From March 16-March 20, schedule an appointment to visit our College’s onsite help center in the AGLS building.  If you need other personal support, please review options available to you through the HR Employee Assistance Program.  To learn more about retirement review the materials available from AgriLife Administrative Services or contact agrilifebenefits@ag.tamu.edu.

If a professor has any questions about Career Center-related assignments or anything Career Center related, they can reach out to cc_advisor@tamu.edu. While this is a general email account, these emails are monitored and immediately forwarded to the appropriate person or subject expert.

I met with several faculty recently about moving courses online. Here are some perspectives to consider if you find you are in this situation… 

• Give up on teaching your class the way you always have. The sooner you can let go of the notion of students tuning in from 12:45-2:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and giving two more exams, the better off you will be.  

• Realize that students are not in town and likely do not have great connectivity. They are also dealing with family who may be ill, have a loss of income, and are generally stressed and upset by all these changes. Expecting them to tune in at a specific time is difficult at best. Asynchronous delivery has some advantages in these crisis situations. It isn’t worse than synchronous delivery, just different. Embrace the new. 

• Reconsider your talking head for three hours a week. Consider giving students material to read, summarize, create an info graphic, etc. Engagement can look very different in an online environment. That is not just OK, it can be awesome.

• A talking head takes a lot of bandwidth, especially when recorded for long periods of time. Consider short videos (5 minutes or less), posting content in text or ppt files, and using synchronous class time Zoom sessions to discuss and answer questions from students. Record these (I recommend saving to your computer rather than the cloud for immediate access) and post the recording for students who were unable to attend. 

• Consider setting intermediate time lines for doing readings, watching videos, etc. and selective release of your materials (having available for a full week).

• Rather than two big exams with 100 questions each, consider breaking information into smaller chunks, with smaller exams or more focused activities.

• Consider windows of time for availability of exams and quizzes rather than just during your class period. Giving some room for connectivity issues will make your life easier in the long run. 

• Remember that flexibility is key. You didn’t sign up to move your course online in the middle of the semester. Your students didn’t sign up to switch to an online course in the middle of the semester. Practicing some flexibility, grace, and kindness goes a long way. Imagine if your own child, niece, or nephew were in your class–are you treating them as you would want your family members to be treated?

• Be creative. Think about assessing in ways that are appropriate for what you want students to learn. Sadly, we typically state higher level learning outcomes but assess with a low level multiple choice exam.

• Recognize that this isn’t the usual semester and do your best to make the tools you have work to your advantage. Fancy isn’t necessary. Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.

• One of the principles of universal design is that what is good for one student is good for all. Captioning, sharing notes and presentation materials, and videos are good practices that help your students with documented disabilities as well as everyone else in your class.

• Rely on those with experience and expertise. We are here to have these conversations and help you learn the tools you need to survive the semester. 

Doug Kingman made and shared this video with one of his classes as a means to introduce them to the new situation and to share with them tips on being successful in on-line learning.  It is about 8 minutes long, but contains a lot of information that will hopefully make students more comfortable with the new norm. It’s a great example of a simple way to set expectations and help a class prepare to adjust to this new way of teaching/learning.

Dr. Kim Dooley has posted a PowerPoint presentation she gives to faculty looking for new/additional ways to engage students.

• Download the PPT
• Contact Dr. Dooley with questions, or additional ideas