This message is intended for Academic Departmental Administrators, Collegiate Chairs, Directors, and DEOs offering Fall 2020 courses.
We understand that many of you are interested in getting started or perhaps continuing review of your departmental offerings for fall in preparation to welcome back our students. We know campus is eager to move forward, and some early guidance is available that will assist the colleges, departments and student service areas with preliminary planning until the necessary pieces for data collection are built for campus use. Please note that this information is being sent to you for planning purposes. Given that final guidance has not yet been disseminated by the Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT), we would request that you do not forward this information to others at this time.
Combination of Online and Face-to-Face Modalities
It will take careful planning to return to a prioritized face-to-face modality for Fall 2020 while adhering to new campus health and safety protocols (TBA). Below are two strategies all colleges should use for fall session planning due to reduced instructional space and classroom operating capacity (final guidance is still forthcoming from the CIMT):
- All section types with optimum enrollment of 50 or more will be online/virtual
- All section types of less than 50 optimum enrollments (49 or below) will be prioritized for face-to-face instruction. In some instances where pedagogy necessitates, section types with less than 50 optimum enrollments may be taught with a blended modality of in-person and synchronous or asynchronous online learning. Finally, in some instances these sections may need to be offered fully online
Following this approach allows sections with lower enrollments to use larger classrooms for additional physical spacing. These changes may result in a blended format in many instances for courses where lecture and discussion/lab combinations exist. As a result of our reduced instructional capacity/classroom operating capacity, campus course scheduling will be based on “best fit” strategies.
Preliminary Process Work
New programming will be built into the MAUI Offerings Planner, available very soon, which will assist in data collection as colleges and departments begin review of their offerings in both size categories. Information will be gathered across all colleges and reported back to Classroom Scheduling in two ways – 1) the MAUI Planner and 2) a new MAUI course scheduling spreadsheet. Please await further details about the aforementioned course scheduling spreadsheet that will arrive to campus administrators in coming weeks.
The procedure outlined below replaces the need to submit revise offering forms for Fall 2020 course sections.
50 or more Opt Enrollments to Online
Indication of synchronous (real-time instruction), asynchronous (recorded instruction), or blended (has components of both synchronous and asynchronous modalities) will be required on a new page (currently under development) in MAUI Planner to capture the Learning Type of the section. If the ‘blended’ option is selected, please email charlene-maher@uiowa.edu to indicate how the section meeting pattern should be viewable by the students. This information will allow for programmatic adjustment to all offerings in the World Wide Web location via a MAUI script.
Less than 50 Opt Enrollments (49 or below)
Based on reduced classroom operating capacity, section types in this size category will likely require adjustments to their assigned classroom (including laboratories, music/art studios, dance facilities or other professional instructional spaces). Consequently, all currently assigned classrooms in the University Classroom pool will be dropped so that departments can reprioritize section offerings. Departmental assigned spaces will remain in MAUI, but classroom adjustments should be noted in the forthcoming spreadsheet for update by the Classroom Scheduling staff, who can then work with departments to reallocate instructional spaces. This prioritization process will be accomplished via a MAUI course scheduling spreadsheet. Organized by unit, it will include all section offerings and will be provided to colleges and/or departments as soon as it is finalized.
Information required for the future spreadsheet template includes:
- indication of whether the course will continue face-to-face for complete meeting pattern, blended face-to-face and online meeting pattern (combination of in-person and synchronous or asynchronous online learning), or if it qualifies for an exception request (see priority section below)
- prioritize each section as High, Medium, or Low (based upon need for face-to-face location)
- High – has a high importance to First-Year (FY) students or in-person instruction is critical to student learning outcomes
- Medium – has some importance to FY students and in-person instruction is preferred but the section could be taught online
- Low – in-person instruction is desirable, if space resources permit, but section could operate in an online format
- if there is a REQUIRED room preference based on critical need for instruction or ADA accommodation ONLY
- if correct optimum enrollment is not present due to holding seats or adding seats, indicate full optimum enrollment needed for classroom sizing in the Comments field
- if a current departmental classroom location change is needed
- if a change in time/day is necessary because no other solution exists
- if section is desired to be canceled; follow current process with Reg MAUI Support
Priorities to Keep in Mind
We want to ensure that our first-year students have face-to-face contact built into their schedules for connecting with others. While planning your section priorities, course types such as these should be considered:
- First-Year Seminars
- Select Rhetoric, English (Interpretation of Literature), and Creative Writing offerings
- Courses in Common combinations, College Transitions, Living Learning Community, Iowa Link and College Success Initiatives courses
- World Languages
- Discussion and lab sections for Math and Chemistry
- Gen Ed discussions for Social Sciences, Diversity and Inclusion, International and Global Issues, Values and Culture, Historical Perspectives and Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
A new tool is under development in Campus Data to further assist in prioritization. More information will be shared upon its availability.
Priority Exceptions
Any priority exceptions that exist should be emailed to renee-houser@uiowa.edu who will share the request with the Office of the Provost for review and approval:
- Where section types of 50 or more max enrollments should be face-to-face rather than online due to specialized facility or equipment for demonstration purposes which makes virtual instruction infeasible or unable to convert to online modality.
- Where sections types of 49 or below max enrollment should be online instead of face-to-face based on reasonable justification. This includes any section that desires use of a blended modality of in-person and synchronous or asynchronous online learning. Departments should combine one or two day a week, face-to-face options across their offerings for efficient classroom use.
General Information
- As you move forward with assigning space to align with new campus scheduling policies, we understand that departments may be inclined to split one large course section into two or more smaller sections. However, with instructional capacity for Fall 2020 at a premium, this should only occur in the rarest of instances. If this action is desired, please contact charlene-maher@uiowa.edu to discuss impact
- Professional schools offering clinical rotations/simulations or who may have questions regarding their curriculum should direct their questions to tanya-uden-holman@uiowa.edu
- All approved course offerings will remain in MAUI as listed. Therefore, it is not necessary to modify the section identifiers or Management Types to DOE unless a section will be supported completely by Distance and Online Education.
- As a result of face-to-face class resumption, University Classrooms (UCRs) cannot be assumed to be available for asynchronous lecture recording or class preparation during Fall 2020. Please contact registrar-room-res@uiowa.edu for options that may exist in small seminar spaces.
Please watch for additional messaging that will provide further guidance on how each college and/or department can proceed with the prioritization data that you have been asked to prepare for Fall 2020.
Questions
Please direct any questions to registrar-room-res@uiowa.edu, renee-houser@uiowa.edu, or charlene-maher@uiowa.edu
