Are your universities preparing for closure?

[historyrocks]

There’s been a flurry of emails this afternoon asking for immediate information on student assessment and what to do if exams are cancelled. A member of teaching staff (in a different department) is currently self-isolating, which I think has added a new level of urgency to plans.

We’re also planning to go 100% online. No date as yet, but we have been told to take everything home with us each night in case we can’t get in the next morning.

I went in early with my husband this morning and loaded the car up with my research and books.

I’m in the humanities so it’s relatively easy to move to online. We have a lot of digitised material and already have online submission. Plan for exams is to replace them with a standard essay.

Durham will move to online teaching from Monday.

Wow. I'm not longer in academia, but was in a science area, and for both my Doctorate and MSc I can't imagine how I'd have coped with not being able to go into the lab for long stretches. And unlike some friends I didn't have "living " experiments (plants etc.) that can't be left.

This is going to be very difficult in some areas.

I'm in science, so a real pain.

I'm in France - looks like we will be closed from Monday.

I’m wet lab science too but I have just told all my team not to come in any more and frozen down everything I could. We have reviews and papers to write, we can do that for a few weeks.

i'm in science and all my MSc students are just gearing up to collect data in the labs that can't be done online. But we don't know if this will be possible.

the uncertainty is very hard. if they are going to be like Italy and shut everything down, I'd rather it happens soon so we have time to adapt.

We've been told to plan for everything remotely, but no news yet.

Exams are apparently going to be done 'open book' but timed, online somehow (if it all happens...), so we were asked to rewrite exams if needed assuming people can access all their course material while doing it, or provide alternate assessments.

We're closed, but that actually means no visitors, no seminars, no classes and please work from home and certainly don't come in if you have to commute on the metro. The lab is actually still open and they're trying to keep it to weekend-type access for those who really can't work from home. I suspect we will only be allowed in the lab until politicians notice and close the loophole.

We've known informally it was coming for a while and had already started prepping, so it's not too much of a shock

We were asked to plan for home working and to look at online delivery etc. earlier this week but we've just had an email saying it's business as usual!!

Madness! While I totally get why schools aren't shutting I feel universities are a different entity altogether. Moving to online teaching and restricting access to campus seems the sensible option but I know we'll be one of the last to do this and probably only if we're told to by the government. My DH works at another uni and they've got a totally different approach and are shutting next week....where as we've just had an email to say there is extra anti bac soap available.

We’ve just cancelled exams! This’ll be fun...

Business as usual here. Ffs

ghislaine so have we (unless we are in the same place!). No precise details on what will replace them. No clear guidance on whether classes will go ahead next week either yet. I keep checking my email for updates and it is making me stressed.

Both my DD's universities have closed, exh has been told to prepare to close down research, animal facilities have special arrangements being planned.

I’m doing a masters and we’ve just been told this afternoon that there will be no more face to face lectures (we are moving into Reading Week anyway). Also told that our exam in 10 days time will not happen but we will be advised shortly of what the alternative assessment method will be. I suspect it will be an essay (we’ve done one already and had to choose from a v long list. V easy to say - now choose another!)

We’ve been told to learn how to use Microsoft teams for use in communicating with staff/students. Never had reason to use it so far. Not entirely sure about how we can use it to teach.

Finally got an email from senior management--business as usual next week (last week of term) and then moving to online. But actually there's basically no teaching after next week anyway.
So I guess I have to go in... on the tube...

We are suspending teaching next week and moving online from the week after. Non honours exams are cancelled and honours will be online. Which is fun for maths based exams. Microsoft teams here too, whatever that might be!

I downloaded the Teams app today! I'm told it's good for cat photos

Our uni went ahead with an open day on weds and has declared business as usual. I'm fed up. And with very ill parents I won't be able to see them for a while if I go to work. Our uni is sticking to the government line of doing mostly sod all.

I got a BAU (with hand washing etc) email on Friday, but our students got one saying remote teaching as of Monday. Eventually at 10 pm and email was sent to staff saying remote teaching as of Monday. So that was professional... I've had no guidance on how to provide remote teaching, and usually do very interactive, discussion & group work based classes. Not sure how I'm going to come up with something by Monday

If any of you use blackboard as your vle, the embedded collaborate function works very well. I tried it in person with my class yday. We are also business as usual still. Hoping this will change. I'm not too happy about being at work as I have high BP and asthma. Yday I walked into my teaching space to find one of my students in a facemask telling me she was ill and had just come bcak from international flight!

Does collaborate require a Google account?

My DD's uni has stopped all teaching.

@YetAnother no, it's part of your blackboard site. If your uni uses blackboard it should be in the course tools.