Academic Continuity refers to the continuation of teaching and learning at Clark University in the event of unexpected or extended campus closures. This guide, provided by ITS and CETL, will give you some considerations, techniques and tools to plan and implement academic continuity strategies for your courses.
As with many things, the best time to plan for an emergency is before it happens. Taking some simple steps at the beginning of every semester can help both you and your students, should you need to be off campus for a period of time.
Share a Syllabus Statement
Crafting and sharing a statement for your syllabus about how you will handle academic continuity will make it clear to all students what your approach will be. A sample statement is included below.
Class Cancellations: In the event that class is cancelled due to inclement weather/illness/unforeseen circumstances, I will send an email to your Clark University email address with further instructions. In all cases of a cancelled class, an attempt will be made to make up for lost class time using online tools so please expect to log in to our Canvas site for information about alternate arrangements including additional materials and assignments.
Use Canvas
Many of the techniques offered here to continue teaching and learning away from the classroom will include Canvas. Publishing your Canvas course, and using it regularly will make your, and your students’ transition after an unexpected closure, much easier. Click here for information on Canvas.
Get Ready
Take some time now and use the ideas and techniques below to make a concrete plan for how you will approach an unexpected campus closure. For example, draft and save a sample email for your students that will explain how you will communicate with them and how you will modify your course.
Additionally, identify an ‘ever-green’ topic for your course. This is a topic that can be used this year, or in the future, and presented to the students at any point of a semester. ‘Ever-green’ topics are often supplemental to your usual course schedule and usually stand alone. Once identified, collect some resources and create an activity that can be presented online to have students engage and learn about the topic. Many semesters you won’t need the ‘ever-green’ topic, but if you need it – everything is ready!