March 31, 2020 Volume 4 Issue 12

Today's Issue

Today’s issue of the Faculty Focus contains updates on student resources for tutoring and academic coaching, new University COVID-19 guidelines, and information on how to prevent “zoom bombing” in your virtual classes. The next issue of the Faculty Focus will be sent Tuesday, April 7. In the meantime, visit the Emory College Remote website for updates and resources.

Remote Teaching Resources: Prevent "Zoom-Bombing"

“Zoom-Bombing” refers to when an unwelcome user joins a Zoom meeting, usually with the intention of sharing inappropriate images. Most instances have involved large, public meetings. There has only been one instance reported among College faculty; however, please be aware of how to prevent this from happening.

The LITS team has put together a document explaining how to safeguard against these unwelcome users. Find it on the Emory College Remote Teaching website. In addition, Zoom has a blog post providing more context and information.

Please continue to regularly check the Emory College Academic Continuity & Remote Teaching site which includes a significant number of resources to support you during remote teaching, as well as important College-specific guidance and policies. Other resources are available on the University’s COVID-19 website.

Student Support: Guidance and Resources

EPASS Peer Programs

OUE’s EPASS Peer Program continues to offer tutoring and academic coaching for students.

EPASS Peer and Staff Academic Coaching: Our academic coaches continue to support students one-on-one virtually using Zoom. Students can make an appointment with a peer coach to work on academic success strategies like goal-setting, study and test-taking skills, and time management through College Connect.

Students who have an acute academic need or learning difference and those who would prefer to meet with a staff member can make a coaching appointment with one of our learning specialists here.

Students can also find remote learning resources and self-coaching tools on the EPASS site.

EPASS Learning Assistants: Availability of remote learning assistance sessions varies by course. Students can register for available sessions through College Connect. Students should direct questions about availability to their faculty member.

EPASS Peer Tutoring: Tutors will continue to offer one-on-one support for students in more than 50 courses through the virtual tutoring platform GoBoard. Students may book up to two appointments each week through College Connect.

Student Attendance & Tracking

Students should not be penalized for missing synchronous class sessions due to circumstances outside of their control; however, faculty should track student attendance in their Zoom sessions and student activity within their Canvas course to identify students at risk of falling behind. Please see the Remote Teaching & Academic Continuity site for more information.

Canvas has a variety of class-level analytics available to instructors to track student engagement. Visit the TLT Support site for more information, or attend a Canvas Analytics for Evaluating Student Engagement virtual workshop this week.

If you have any student with whom you’ve unable to make contact with thus far, or who falls out of contact (for 3+ days) at any point during the remainder of the term, please complete the Student of Concern Referral form.

Pre-registration for Fall 2020

Reminder: Pre-registration for Fall 2020 has started. The pre-registration dates are listed below. A full calendar of registration times can be found here. These pre-registration times, which are all EST, should be viewable in OPUS and are as follows:

  • March 31: Students with 75+ earned hours (6 p.m.– 11:59 p.m.)
  • April 6: Students with 45+ earned hours (6 p.m.– 11:59 p.m.)
  • April 13: Students with 0-44.99 earned hours (6 p.m. – 11:59 p.m.)

Faculty can learn more about setting up virtual office hours on the Remote Teaching website.

General Student Resources: For College-focused information for our students, please see the Student Resources section of the Emory College Remote website. Other good information for student resources can be found on the university’s COVID-19 site.

Upcoming Meetings

Emory College Faculty Senate Meeting April 1

The Emory CollegeFaculty Senate will meet at 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 1 via Zoom. For the best sound quality, please ensure that your microphone is muted as you enter the meeting. If you have questions or comments during the meeting, type them into the group chat.

New business on the agenda includes: Motion to move the Race and Ethnicity requirement to online voting; report of the working group on cluster hires; Shared Governance in a Time of Crisis: Conversation with Dean Elliott; and proposed statement from the Senate to the Emory College Faculty.

Staff-only Town Hall with Dean Elliott April 1

Emory College Dean Michael Elliott will hold a virtual Town Hall for all College staff at 2 p.m., Wednesday, April 1. All staff should have received an invite with Zoom info. If you did not receive it, contact Susan Lee, slee05@emory.edu.

University Updates

New University-wide guidelines were sent Monday, March 30. Read full details on the COVID-19 website. For the health and safety of everyone, please practice social distancing both inside and outside. Social distancing is defined as remaining out of group settings, avoiding gatherings, and maintaining a 6 feet distance from others when possible per the CDC guidelines.

Refer to the University’s COVID-19 Website for the latest University-wide updates, including useful information and resources specifically for faculty, staff, and students.

Faculty 180

The College is proceeding with replacing the Online Faculty Activity Report (OFARs) with Faculty 180 activity reporting as part of the faculty review and evaluation process.

Faculty 180 is a system that allows faculty to enter all professional activities in one system that can then be used to generate CVs, reporting, biosketches, etc.

This platform will provide Emory-wide uniformity for university reporting that supports faculty, administrative, and accreditation needs. This easy-to-use system will streamline data collection for your use as well as for reporting purposes in Emory College, and Emory University.

Faculty 180 Training Sessions: Your department chair may have already arranged for a department-specific session but there are also general training sessions available through Zoom. They are scheduled for:

  • 2– 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 1
  • 8:30 – 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, April 14
  • 2 – 4 p.m., Monday, April 20

These sessions will be posted on the Dean of Faculty Outlook calendar so faculty can go there to claim the session link(s). You may also RSVP to the Dean_of_Faculty@emory.edu email and we will send you a calendar invite with the Zoom link information.

This Year’s Faculty Activity Report for Performance Review: This spring all tenure-track and lecturer-track faculty will enter their activity information encompassing the past year (May 2019 – May 2020) in Faculty 180 instead of through OFARs. Activity information will need to be entered and complete by all regular faculty by Friday, May 15, 2020.

Stay Connected: Emory College Remote

Emory College Remote is a new website to house all of our College-specific resources, essential contacts, and recent messages in one virtual location. The goal of the site is to better provide and collate the most relevant information our community needs in an accessible format.

The Emory College Remote site currently includes: sections for Faculty and Staff resources and essential contacts; a student section with current academic and co-curricular support; a College-specific message portal; resources for health and wellness; and a space for community connection. For questions and feedback about Emory College Remote, please contact College communications director Beverly Clark, beverly.clark@emory.edu.

Emory College Social Media

If your department is active on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram), please be sure to follow and tag @emorycollege to help amplify news and other posts that help build and connect our virtual College community. Email April Hunt, april.hunt@emory.edu, with any questions.

Reminder: Charges Related to COVID-19

Reminder: College departments and programs may incur extraordinary expenses related to COVID-19. In an effort to track these unexpected expenses, Emory’s Finance Division created a new SpeedType 8300100218 (Project ID 00094049) for the College.

Individuals with delegated authority to purchase goods and services on behalf of Emory are required to comply with the Procurement of Goods and Services policy. Goods and services not found in Emory Express can be purchased using Emory's Purchasing card (pCard) according to policy. For most items, the preferred method will be Emory Express. If a COVID-19 expense has posted already, you should process a journal to transfer the expense to this dedicated SpeedType. Otherwise, you may post these expenses directly to the SpeedType.

If you’re unsure if an expense should be charged to ST8300100218 or if you have additional questions, please contact your dedicated College Finance Representative. Thank you for your patience while College Business Operations attempts to provide support and guidance to your department through this extraordinary time.

Quick Contacts List

Advising: oue.advising@emory.edu

Faculty: oue.facultysupport@emory.edu

Parents: family@emory.edu

Housing: housing@emory.edu

Dining: dining@emory.edu

Admissions: apply@emory.edu

International students: isss@emory.edu

Remote teaching: http://college.emory.edu/oisp/remoteteaching/index.html

Covid-19 Emory Updates: https://www.emory.edu/coronavirus/