Dear OSU Faculty,

We are writing with guidance on fall teaching, to remind you that OSU’s Keep Teaching team is hosting workshops to help faculty prepare for remote and blended instruction, and to announce a new program under development in the Center for Teaching and Learning to support peer mentors who will be available to assist their faculty colleagues with resources and strategies for teaching in remote and blended modalities.

Teaching Guidance. With input from faculty and the advice and endorsement of the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate, we have developed general guidance for OSU course delivery this fall. Found here, the guidance summarizes sources of support, defines different modalities and associated expectations for instructors, and provides recommendations for effective instruction and in-person activities. We encourage everyone who is teaching this fall to be familiar with its content.

Workshops. The Keep Teaching Team has developed workshops that strive to equip you with valuable tools and strategies for:

  • Planning the transition of your course design to remote or blended delivery, including course projects and assessments;
  • Engaging students remotely in active learning and group work;
  • Communicating and interacting with students effectively through Canvas;
  • Setting up an organized, consistent structure for materials and activities in your course site; and
  • Teaching inclusively during challenging times.

The following Colleges have elected to gather faculty for a workshop that includes online pre-work and a synchronous meeting; you may RSVP for your college’s workshop online up to three days before the synchronous meeting (https://beav.es/4vy). Please note that the first three of the workshops have already occurred, but you can still register at the link provided and we will send you a link to the Canvas site with the workshop content and the meeting recording.

  • College of Liberal Arts – Monday, August 10th from 10:30-12:00
  • College of Pharmacy – Monday, August 17th from 1:00-2:30
  • College of Veterinary Medicine – Tuesday, August 18th from 10:00-11:30
  • Honors College – Friday, August 28th from 1:00-2:30
  • College of Engineering – Monday, August 31st from 10:30-12:00
  • College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences – Friday, September 11th from 10:00-11:30
  • College of Agricultural Sciences – Wednesday, September 16th from 1:30-3:00
  • College of Public Health and Human Sciences – Thursday, September 17th from 1:30-3:00
  • College of Business – TBD

In addition to the college workshops, you may also attend modality-specific workshops that will dig into more specifics for different kinds of teaching scenarios. These workshops are open to all OSU faculty regardless of unit. Registration is available now (https://beav.es/4vm).

  • Remote Course Design and Teaching – Tuesday, September 8th from 10:00-11:30
  • Hybrid/Blended Course Design and Teaching – Wednesday, September 9th from 10:00-11:30
  • Physically-Distanced On-Site Course Design and Teaching – Thursday, September 10th from 1:00-2:30

Finally, there are ongoing opportunities for 1:1 consultation with colleagues in the Center for Teaching and Learning (https://ctl.oregonstate.edu/webform/contact-us) and Academic Technology (https://beav.es/4vW).

Peer Mentoring. Details of this program are still under development and we will update the campus community in the coming weeks.

We know your efforts to prepare for fall come during a time of great uncertainty, considerable worry about the course of the pandemic and its impact, financial stringency for the university and temporary salary reductions. We greatly appreciate your extraordinary work to help meet our students where they are this fall under these challenging conditions. We hope these workshops and other activities and resources will ease your workload, reduce your stress, and assist with your planning and decision-making around course design and pedagogy as you prepare for the upcoming term.

 

Sincerely,

Edward Feser
Provost and Executive Vice President

Alix Gitelman
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education

Date: 
August 21, 2020