Updates for Syllabus Statements and Preparations for Hybrid/Remote Teaching
Dear CMU Faculty Members and Course Instructors:
Let us begin by thanking you for all your efforts to design and prepare your courses and syllabi for Fall 2020; we greatly appreciate all of your efforts! As you finalize your preparations, including a one-week delay to resuming in-person undergraduate teaching that was announced yesterday, we hope the resources below will be timely and helpful.
FALL 2020 SYLLABI
The Eberly Center has created a new webpage with suggested updates to your syllabus that address the current context, including sections on:
- Expectations for coming to class (including the requirement to wear facial coverings),
- Transferring to fully remote during the semester,
- Including a diversity statement and a student well-being statement to set the stage for a supportive and inclusive learning environment,
- Use of Zoom in class (including use of video), and much more.
Please refer to this page, adopting or adapting the sample language provided to best fit your course context.
OTHER RESOURCES FOR FALL PLANNING
- Designing and conducting assessments in a remote/hybrid environment can be challenging and likely will require adjustments. A CMU team of faculty, students and support professionals developed this set of strategies for remote assessment.
- Recognizing and accommodating the many religious, secular and spiritual identities of our students can be a key part of your more general approach to classroom climate. Please consider these important dates and religious observances when planning mandatory activities.
- All approved disability accommodations requested by a student should still be provided in a remote or hybrid teaching environment. Visit the syllabus updates page for suggested syllabus language on this topic, and email access@andrew.cmu.edu if you or your student have questions about how to implement accommodations.
- Please limit undergraduate course activities during the moratorium hours of 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. each weekday. This hybrid semester we are preserving the moratorium period for students, whenever possible, to allow them time to interact in a variety of intellectual, cultural, social and recreational activities.
- For hybrid teaching in CMU-Pittsburgh classrooms, Computing Services and Eberly have created these new webpages:
- cmu.edu/computing/teach-online/ has information on the standard A/V set-up, including how-to instructions for connecting, sharing audio/video, and more
- cmu.edu/teaching/online/hybrid/classrooms/ has information on what to expect, instructional strategies that work with this set-up, and more.
For any other questions you may have about hybrid/remote instruction, please email eberly-assist@andrew.cmu.edu.
Thank you again for all your efforts to ensure that our students receive the best educational experience possible during their time at Carnegie Mellon.
Sincerely,
Jim Garrett, Provost and Chief Academic Officer
Marsha Lovett, Associate Vice Provost for Educational Innovation and Learning Analytics; Director, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation; and Co-coordinator of The Simon Initiative