ECU Officials are reminding us to have plans in place to protect university life and property in case of adverse weather (primarily, hurricanes during this time of year). Were you aware that, with the aid of our technological devices, we can continue to deliver course material to students during a shutdown? You may remember that, about a year ago, the Office of Educational Technology published a plan for continuing operation during an epidemic of the H1N1 virus. OET has updated this document to apply to operational disruptions due to adverse weather. 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. These presentations can be sent live to the students.
If the class is not in a recording room, then the faculty member would have to agree to re-create the lectures for recording at another time in a recording room or we may be able to use one of our portable Mediasite units. Alternatively, OET can set up a faculty office for recording using Camtasia. This system is not as robust as Mediasite but can serve adequately in a crisis.
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, communicator or telephone. We can manage Mediasite recordings and delivery. We can provide on-demand help in the classrooms from home, also.
