Final exams, extending incomplete deadlines and other updates

Dear UAA Faculty:

We are on the home stretch for spring semester, thanks to all your work to transition to alternate delivery.

Please continue to use the following resources:

• Academic Continuity Website: Please continue to refer to the UAA Academic Continuity (Guidance for Faculty) website and to submit questions missing in the FAQs. This helps us know how we can further assist.
• Deans and Community Campus Directors: If you still have questions or are handling a unique situation, please continue to work with your dean or community campus director. They continue to work collaboratively across the colleges and campuses, to ensure as much coordination as possible so you can help your students meet the Student Learning Outcomes.
• Faculty Development and Teaching Support: Please revisit these sites to take full advantage of the resources that continue to be developed by our outstanding network of faculty support entities (CAFE, AI&e and CCEL). There is a wide variety of material available; including the Keep Teaching: Instructional Continuity page that provides guidance for temporary alternate delivery, instructional strategies and resources, drop-in hours for technology support, a roster of faculty members who have volunteered to assist and support colleagues, the COVID-19 Guide to Maintaining Instructional Continuity ePortfolio and more.

Many of you have sent questions about grades and finals. Below are some updates.

Past Semesters

• Incompletes from Past Semesters: I am extending the deadline to the end of fall 2020 semester for any incompletes that would have been due to be completed in spring or summer 2020.  Students who were supposed to finish course requirements this spring or summer will be reaching out to you to discuss how to complete the course by the end of the fall 2020 semester.  Please work with them.

Spring Semester

• Focus on the Learning Outcomes: Continue to focus on meeting the remaining Student Learning Outcomes and to consider alternate ways of getting there.
• Final Exams: While I continue to recommend asynchronous options, if you plan to administer a final exam at a set time, use the standard final exam time blocks posted on the Registrar’s website (see Spring Finals). Final exams scheduled outside standard time blocks are more likely to create scheduling conflicts for students. Faculty may also use those final exam time slots for a regular class meeting. If you have questions, please work with your chair and dean’s office. If you need support revising an exam for alternate delivery, these strategies and resources from the faculty development network may be helpful, and live drop-in consultations are available too.
• Grading Options: If a student completed enough work prior to the shift to alternate delivery to earn a passing grade, you can assign that grade. If a student did not complete enough work for evaluation to occur, has disengaged and did not withdraw by the April 10 deadline, you might want to consider assigning an “NB” grade. “NB” grades will not affect a student’s GPA, though they might impact financial aid and other benefits.

Summer Semester

• Summer Preparation for Alternate Delivery: As you know, alternate delivery will be continued through the summer 2020 semester. UAA's faculty development network looks forward to supporting faculty who are preparing for alternate delivery during the summer term. Applications are now being accepted for participation in #Pivot - May 2020 Faculty Intensive, a faculty development intensive that will run May 11-15. The session includes design strategies, best practices and support for assignments, assessments and course communication patterns, as well as ongoing support throughout the summer term. Open to full-time faculty and pre-professoriate post-docs, you may join the intensive as a participant or peer mentor. Mini-grants are available; see terms and deliverables with the application. 

As always, thank you for all you are doing as we continue to face this complex situation together.

Sincerely,
John R. D. Stalvey, Ph.D.

April Archive