Dear Colleagues,
As we start our first week of distance learning, I want to start by saying THANK YOU for everything that you’ve done this week to prepare WSU and our local communities to respond to the growing impact of COVID-19. We’ve learned new tools to help us communicate at a distance; we’ve transitioned courses from face-to-face delivery to 100% online; we’ve transitioned ourselves and our teams to working from home; we’ve done a lot in a short time. And we need to do more.
Boiled down to its simplest, our mission is twofold; 1) To provide a world-class education for our students; and 2) to keep our students safe. The deadly COVID-10 pandemic is creating a unique challenge to this mission.
To be perfectly clear, from here forward our mission priority is to ensure our students are safe. Whitman County reported its first COVID-19 positive this morning. We cannot allow our actions to allow a disease that is killing thousands of people every day to spread because we are not willing to change our research, teaching, or student support methods.
Classroom Support
You’ll find a lot of useful information on VCEA IT’s website, and as this week unfolds, don’t hesitate to reach out for their support:
- Phone: 509-335-6773
- Email: support.vcea@wsu.edu
- Web: it.vcea.wsu.edu
I want to give a big shout-out to Tony Burt, Todd Vanek, Steve Saunders and their team for the training sessions they put together last week. In a few short hours, they helped get hundreds of us up to speed. Professor Saunders even created an easy step-by-step video to show you how to use Zoom.
But if you’re like me, learning and implementing new technology in a short period of time is a big challenge. However, it is vital to achieve our educational mission.
As many of you witnesses at last week’s Town Hall, having a second ‘instructor’ in the live experience, who can help answer chat questions and manage the student environment is invaluable.
Please identify and train a ‘secondary instructor’ for your classroom as soon as possible. This could be a faculty colleague, a teaching assistant, or a staff member. They just need to be able to manage the zoom space while instruction is occurring and be friendly and supportive of student learning.
If you need help identifying this person, please contact your unit leader immediately and they will find one for you.
Student Concerns
Undergraduate students have many anxieties and concerns during this unprecedented time, the highest of which is whether they – and we – can succeed in this new and stressful teaching and learning environment.
If you haven’t already, take a moment to reach out to them and help alleviate any concerns they may have in your area. Be kind. Be creative. Be flexible. Working together with your students to find solutions will go a long way in helping them face the other challenges in their lives right now.
Student Support
To further support our students, our faculty and staff have created a Frequently Asked Questions document posted to our website.
Please use it to help students find answers they are looking for. If a student has a question to which you cannot find the answer, they can send an email to VCEA.COVID19@wsu.edu which will be answered quickly.
In addition, we have set up a Student Support Zoom Room that will be staffed this week from 10 am – 4pm on Monday and 8 am – 4 pm Tuesday through Friday to help students who need urgent assistance with our services.
Zoom Room Details: Meeting ID is 984-646-732. Please go to WSU Zoom in order to join the meeting to guarantee that you entering through WSU authentication. Or you can also go directly the Zoom Room.
Let me conclude in the same way I began, by saying ‘thank you.’ I am continually amazed by the commitment I see from each of you to fulfill our mission during these uncertain times. Stay strong. Stay focused. Work together. Help each other. Together, we got this!
Go 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