Transitioning to Online: COVID-19 March 16 Update

Dear Colleagues,

With one week to go until we begin distance learning at Washington State University, I wanted to provide you an update on where we at with our preparation efforts.

In addition to the AOI training programs I mentioned in Friday’s email, our very own online education and information technology experts are partnering to provide you with VCEA Transitioning to Online Training this week on the following days and times:

• Monday, March 16: 1 – 3 PM
• Tuesday, March 17: 9:30 – 11:30 AM
• Thursday, March 19: 3 – 5 PM

We are very fortunate to have colleagues who are experts with communicating in this format who are willing to pass on their years of experience to us. I recommend that everyone take time to attend one of these sessions to learn the tips and tricks to providing a quality online learning experience using Zoom.

Sessions are offered via Zoom to not only experience it as you would as an instructor or in your role providing our students support, but also to get a sense of how our students will experience this new format.

You should already have these sessions in your Outlook mailbox. The Zoom info is also included at the bottom of this email.

Many of you are also impacted by Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s directive last week to close all K-12 schools in the state of Washington through April 24. WSU’s Incident Command Group is working hard to provide you information on how we can best accommodate this decision with the least impact to our students and to you, and I will share that information as soon as possible.

To support the need for social distancing and to minimize potential impacts on members of our VCEA family at high-risk for contracting this virus, we are aggressively moving all non-essential functions to telework. Expect another message on this topic soon.

Look for updates on WSU’s response efforts at WSU’s COVID-19 website on a regular basis, and you can always send your questions to WSU’s dedicated COVID-19 email

Be Safe Cougs!

Mary Rezac (she/her/hers)
Dean, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
Washington State University
Email: mary.rezac@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-5593
Twitter: @VCEA_Dean
vcea.wsu.edu