Campus Message - March 18, 2020

For the most recent campus messages, please visit our Coronavirus news center.

18 March 2020

Dear Colleagues,

The Center for eLearning and Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching (CELT) are open, and will continue to provide support to faculty, staff, and students throughout this challenging period.

We will continue to assist anyone who e-mails blazeview@valdosta.edu, calls 229-245-6490, or fills out the eLearning Contact Form. We have arranged for our helpdesk system and phones to function remotely whenever needed, ensuring continuity of support. Additionally, the D2L Help Center is still open 24 hours a day for calls and troubleshooting (1-855-772-0423).

Here is a list of additional support and key resources to bookmark:

  • Whenever possible, eLearning and CELT staff will conduct one-on-one consultations with faculty via video conferencing platforms such as Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (which is embedded into BlazeVIEW), Blue Jeans, or Microsoft Teams, which is accessible via Office365 in the MyVSU portal. This will allow us to continue to support faculty on an individual basis and familiarize faculty with these tools, so that they may consider using them when teaching.
     
  • For the rest of the semester, CELT’s Faculty Learning Communities will meet via video conference or other digital/online formats. Facilitators will contact participants with their plans. 
     
  • All in-person group trainings for BlazeVIEW and other instructional technologies have been replaced with digital downloadable tutorials, voiceover PowerPoints, videos, webinars, and other online resources. These include, but are not limited to:
  • The Center for eLearning’s website on Teaching Remotely. This continues to be updated, so keep checking regularly. For example, we have renewed our license with Blackboard Collaborate Ultra, which allows video conferencing to be embedded into BlazeVIEW, and we obtained a free license from Respondus Monitor, a tool used to prevent academic dishonesty when students take tests online.

  • BlazeVIEW 101 Spring 2020, a BlazeVIEW course in which all VSU faculty were enrolled last week. This continues to be updated, so keep checking regularly. For example, BlazeVIEW 101 includes an “Ask the Expert” discussion forum for pedagogical support from peer faculty experts in each college. Later this week, it will feature a new module on strategies for experiential learning, as well as high-impact practices for online teaching to help faculty who teach studios and labs. A live, comprehensive list of textbook publishers and software companies that are offering free online content and licenses to educators will also be posted soon, and will allow VSU faculty to contribute what they have learned from their disciplines and national associations.
     
  • All VSU faculty are now enrolled in the Rapid Guide to Teaching Online training course in BlazeVIEW, which takes 2 to 3+ hours to complete. Sign into BlazeVIEW to locate this training, which was developed by USG’s eCampus.

  • Download the FREE Brightspace Pulse app for BlazeVIEW on your mobile devices.

  • Although BlazeVIEW and its embedded Blackboard Collaborate Ultra video conferencing tool should be your primary platform, VSU’s IT division is also creating a Microsoft Team for every instructor and class section taught at VSU this Spring 2020 semester. Faculty will receive an automated e-mail soon with a notice about the creation of their class Teams. A training video on Microsoft Teams for classroom use is hyperlinked on the Teaching Remotely website and within BlazeVIEW 101. Microsoft Teams is accessible through Office 365, offered online in the MyVSU portal using VSU e-mails of faculty, staff, and students. Features include group chat, video conferencing, file sharing, and assignment review, but this tool is NOT embedded into BlazeVIEW.

Our plan is to always have at least one staff member physically present at the Center for eLearning (second floor of Odum Library – Suite 2621) and at CELT (102 Georgia Avenue). No matter the circumstances, both centers and our support services can now function remotely. 

We recognize that the path ahead is challenging for all of us as teachers. The Center for eLearning and CELT, along with our excellent campus partners such as IT, are here to support you during this time. 

Best, 

Jamie Landau, Ph.D.

Director

Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching

jlandau@valdosta.edu

Marsha Dukes

Associate Director of eLearning

mbdukes@valdosta.edu

REPORT HEALTH CONCERNS

Key term: Close Contact - this is defined as being within six (6) feet of an individual for more than 15 minutes regardless of whether a face covering is worn.  

EMPLOYEES DO NOT come on campus if you believe you have been in close contact with a person having COVID or yourself having symptoms or receiving a positive diagnosis. Instead, notify your supervisor of your absence, seek medical services from your primary care provider, and self-report your information by completing the online form or contacting HR directly at 229-333-5709. 

STUDENTS DO NOT come on campus nor go directly to the Student Health Center if you believe you have been exposed to COVID. Instead, call the Health Services at 229-333-5886 to speak with a triage nurse over the phone. Additional guidance will be provided on how to access the health center facility. The health center remains open for walk-in patients with non-COVID medical needs. 

Members of the campus community should report all instances of close contact with a person having COVID or themselves receiving a positive diagnosis of COVID.  To assist with reporting, a COVID Self Reporting link has been added within MyVSU.  

 

covid-self-reporting.png 

 

If you have been instructed to self-isolate or quarantine, you should do so at your permanent home for the period given unless it should be extended due to remaining symptoms. 

Report a Social Distance Concern