Planning in the Event H1N1 Flu Disrupts Your Class

Continuing your class if you or your students are hit by the H1N1 Flu requires thoughtful preparation ahead of time and creativity during the disruption.  The welfare of our students and our faculty and staff are obviously our first priority.  However, there are steps we can take to continue courses and learning during a medical emergency. 
The Center for Teaching Excellence can advise faculty members seeking ways to minimize course disruption if students or faculty members miss class due to the flu.  The following suggestions provide alternatives for instruction so that your students can continue learning if class attendance is medically discouraged.

Planning Considerations for Faculty Members

• Have a communication strategy; tell your students where to find course information.
• Plan how you will stay in touch with your TAs and other instructional staff.
• Post your syllabus online and update it with course changes frequently.
• Have a clearly-stated course policy regarding make-ups and absences.

The most immediate and simplest thing to do is to look over your syllabus and attendance policies.  Students should be advised that if they are diagnosed with or have suspected influenza to not attend class and avoid contact with others for at least 24 hours after their fever resolves.  Therefore, a student hit with the flu might be out of classes for a full week.

You can help by reminding students at the start of the course the plans you have in place to help them keep up with their coursework if they get sick.  Having planned ahead, you can tell them how you will issue updates about changes in your class plans or update them on assignments.  The Blackboard announcements feature, email, discussion board, and even social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter can be used.  Just let your students know where to look for new information.

A case of influenza might take a week to resolve, causing a student to miss two or three class sessions.  You may wish to be more flexible with attendance policies in your course, encouraging students, if they feel well enough, to participate in online discussions or forums such as blogs to continue engagement with class activities.

If you have assignments due, students might miss deadlines because of illness.  In your syllabus and grading policy, outline how you will handle late assignments or missed exams - you might want to consider how to fairly assess late work from students and keep them informed so they know what to expect.

Suggestions on Keeping the Class Going When You Cannot Go
- Lecture-based classes

• Post documents and assignments online in Blackboard in place of lecture
• Record the class lecture for students to view later (podcast or screencast)
• Narrate a slide show from home for students to listen to

- Seminar class/discussion

• Substitute Blackboard's discussion board for class sessions
• Set up a course blog with VCU Blogs to continue course discussion off campus
• Use Wimba Classroom web conferencing to hold online real-time meetings
• Telephone audio conference for small classes

- Lab class

• Locate virtual labs online for students to complete.  Google “virtual science labs” for possible options
• Arrange alternate activities in place of the lab
  

Distributing, Collecting and Grading Assignments

• Post assignment instructions and grades on the course Blackboard website
• Use the Blackboard Assignment feature to collect assignments electronically
• Use Blackboard Gradebook to comment, grade and return assignments
• Use Wimba Voice tools to provide verbal feedback on student work
• Offer online quizzes, questionnaires or tests where appropriate

Managing Student Meetings and Group Work

• Offer students online tools for group work, such as the Blackboard groups tool, a wiki such as WetPaint or Wikispaces, and others
• Use instant messenger or video chat to communicate one-on-one (Pronto, TinyChat, Skype, etc)
• Hold online meetings, with shared visuals and audio, via Wimba Classroom.
• Use the Staff Information and Announcements pages on Blackboard to tell students when you'll be available online, how to contact you, etc

The CTE Staff can work with you ahead of time to get you up to speed on the use of these instructional technologies.  Check out our workshops or set up an individual consultation.