Information for faculty on academic planning

Online Classes for the Fall

1. The U of I system office has provided UIC with $1 million to distribute to faculty for their efforts over the summer to put their classes online. We are required to bargain with the TT and NTT faculty union about how to pay this out, and have already made a proposal in this regard. We hope to reach an agreement with the union soon, and will then distribute the funds as quickly as possible.
2. Faculty members and their assigned GA Course Builders have started converting 34% of the 70+ classes to an asynchronous online format. All faculty who have been assigned a Course Builder are encouraged to begin working with this person so they can take advantage of this resource. This is a long process and the Course Builders will not be able to increase their weekly hours later in the semester to assist faculty who started working with them later in the summer.
3. Sixteen faculty from across the university have signed up to be mentors this summer to faculty who are preparing online classes for the first time. Their names and contact information are will be added to the Provost’s website soon.
4. Blackboard is the only Learning Management System supported by the university. Using Blackboard creates consistency across courses for students, helping them know where to find the syllabus, new assignments, deadlines, etc., for all of their classes. It also offers a helpful framework for faculty to create their online classes and should be used for all new online courses, synchronous and asynchronous, for Fall 2020. Blackboard template is available here.

International Students

5. The university is waiting for guidance from the federal government as to whether the regulation that requires all online class that international students in the U.S. take be blended (i.e. 20% of each class must be taken face-to-face on campus). This regulation was suspended for Spring and Summer 2020 and it is unknown if it will remain suspended for the Fall 2020 semester. Planning guidance is available here.

Fall 2020 Academic Planning Task Force

6. In light of the Illinois reopening plan and the recently released Illinois Board of Higher Education guidelines, all UIC classes held on campus in Fall 2020 will have fewer than 50 students enrolled.
7. The Fall 2020 Academic Planning Task Force, along with members of SCEP, will be working on approaches to online assessment. Resources to assist faculty with choosing assessments should be available in July.
8. The Fall 2020 Academic Planning Task Force continues to run focus groups with students and expand its list of best practices for building community online.
9. Many resources for online teaching, FAQ’s, and other information about Fall planning, are available at https://provost.uic.edu/faculty-instruction-resources-fall-2020-2/ and https://accc.uic.edu/news-stories/your-guide-to-online-teaching-learning/