Advice and Guidance for Exceptional Closures
Brief exceptional campus closures, caused by severe weather or other emergencies, may prevent staff and students from attending campus. This guide offers some practical advice on how to effectively communicate with your students, and provide continuity of learning, during these types of emergency closures.
When an exceptional closure arises, there are a number of issues that may impact you and your students e.g. loss of electricity, issues with access to technology or WiFI, poor connection speeds, caring responsibilities, health issues and indeed managing the exceptional event. It is therefore a good idea to pause and consider approaches rather than immediately trying to run a live session.
Plans for continuity of teaching involve three key aspects: preparation, communication and delivery.
Preparation
When you are setting up your module consider how Blackboard, and associated tools, can help achieve your module’s learning outcomes remotely.
Familiarity with tools: There are a wide variety of tools within Blackboard Ultra and Office365 which can help during remote teaching e.g. Class Collaborate, Teams video calls, Discussion boards, Announcements, Blackboard Messages (which can also be sent as an email).
Learning design: Make sure your Blackboard module is well organised and there is consistency in learning materials to enable students to find content quickly. Consider creating a dedicated content item at the top of the module page for emergency teaching information during the exceptional closure.
Varied Media: Consider standby activities that students can accomplish off-line without a robust network connection. For instance, students may be able to download content in advance, such as video, audio, reading list from the library with links to downloadable reading.
Varied modes of learning: This could be live sessions and / or recordings, materials and activities that can be accessed independently at at time that suits your students.
Communication
At the start of your module, it is a good idea to let your students know how you intend to communicate with them. Using the same methods during an emergency response is sensible. There are many communication tools available - Email, Blackboard Announcements, Messages or external tools such as Whatsapp. Our recommendation would be the Blackboard Announcements tool as there is the option of sending the announcement as an email too. This means your students will receive an Announcement in Blackboard, an alert in the Blackboard App (if they are using it) and an immediate email sent to their Ulster email address.
Many of our staff and students travel significant distances to attend Campus and whilst one of our Campuses may remain open due to weather alert locations you or your students may need to travel from other impacted areas. If you have any concerns, communicate early to avoid students travelling significant distances.
Students may be managing complex arrangements, as a result of exceptional events, and it is important to be sympathetic to this context. Be explicit about your expectations when communicating but offer flexibility where it is necessary and ensure that students understand that attendance is not absolutely necessary in exceptional circumstances.
Delivery
Remote teaching can be synchronous (real time) or asynchronous (in own time).
Tools that can be used for live (real time) sessions in Ulster University:
Class Collaborate: setting up a Collaborate session
Whilst Class Collaborate was the approved Ulster tool for synchronous teaching during the Pandemic teaching response, it does require specific browsers and browser settings to work well. If your students are not familiar with Collaborate there will be attrition with set up and some students may not be able to connect. Microsoft Teams works natively on most devices and is easier to connect to without prior experience. You should therefore pick the tool you are most comfortable with and increasingly we find that tool is Microsoft Teams
Quick Set Up of a Teams session
Open your Ulster Calendar, either through the Outlook app or online via https://www.office.com/
Locate the date and time of your session and add a New Event to your calendar.
Add the session details and click the Teams Meeting option
There is no need to invite specific people just click Save
When the event is saved, open the event in your Calendar and you will find the Join link.
Copy the Join link and send the session link via the Announcements tool in Blackboard, selecting the option to send a copy via email.
For learning materials, and activities, that are more flexible for students to do at a time that suits them, you could use learning modules in your Blackboard module area that include lectures (text based or recorded) coupled with knowledge based activities, perhaps using one of the tools below to enhance the material.
If you have enough time, you may wish to record a session via Panopto in advance of the emergency closure. Your students can then watch the content at a time that suits them.
You can also provide extra sources for students that they can download and read / watch in their own time for independent study.
Library links to peer reviewed journals, ebooks and other online materials.
Support is available to assist you to best prepare for emergency closures.
Blackboard help desk (blackboardhelpdesk@ulster.ac.uk).
or book a 1:1 support session with a CDLE team member to explore options further.
Using Discussion Forums in Blackboard Learn Ultra
Seven steps to prepare your module in Ultra