A New Year, a New Semester and there is cold and flu out there!

All does not have to stop.  Yes please all be careful but with the aid of our technological devices, we can continue to deliver course material to students during a shutdown.   Preparedness is the key.

All faculty should have all course content on blackboard or some other web site for students who can’t get to class.  Such blackboard sites need not be elaborate.  OET can help set up these “emergency” blackboard courses but it does need to be done in advance.

Students can’t make it to class but the faculty can

If a class with absences is normally scheduled in a classroom with mediasite recorders, we can simply activate the recorder during class.  We can then deliver these lectures to selected students.  Note that we have fine granularity and can make the presentation available to individual students for instructor-specified time periods.

But if you can’t make it in there is Mediasite Desktop Recorder (MDR) which can be used from any location with an up to date operating system, Windows or Mac. Contact OET for access.

For courses currently being recorded but not normally providing viewing access to in-class students, upon faculty request we can give access to selected (or all) in-class students for a faculty-specified period of time.

Faculty absences or university closure

If we know about this enough in advance, we can make some recordings before the university shuts down.  Students can watch them during the closure since the mediasite and blackboard servers will, presumably, remain up during closure.

OET absences

OET personnel have access to all necessary equipment from home.  To such extent as the security of our own homes allows, we will continue operations as usual from home.  We can consult with faculty by e-mail, skype, lync or telephone.  We can manage mediasite recordings and delivery.  We can provide on-