Academic Continuity Standards

The college has maintained academic continuity standards for many years (originally in response to the H1N1 virus). The Covid-19 campus closure compels us to update and strengthen these standards, which will remain in place beyond the current pandemic. These are permanent standards.

  1. Upload your course syllabus. NOTE: this is how the College will collect and store your syllabi. Your syllabus should meet the College’s syllabus guidelines.
  2. Require at least one online submission of an assignment, quiz or participation in a discussion by the end of the first week of classes. In the event of a fully remote scenario, student participation in Canvas during the first week will serve the role of enrollment verification. (Rationale)
  3. All assignments due dates need to be posted so they show up in the Canvas student to-do list. (Rationale and notes)
  4. All class meetings should be posted to Google Calendar. When a webinar option is being used, the connection information should be attached to the calendar invite. Some faculty may choose to also post meeting info as Canvas events in their courses as well. (Rationale)
  5. Canvas should be utilized for class announcements and student communications. Communication related to assignment grades and feedback should be limited to Canvas or other FERPA compliant systems in limited situations. (Rationale)
  6. Course materials and delivery must be accessible to any students with accommodations who might enroll. (Rationale)
  7. Courses should maintain their gradebook in Canvas so that the current grade is an accurate predictor of student success. Faculty should provide feedback on assignments in a timely manner. (Rationale)

Rationales:

  1. For federal financial aid requirements we need to confirm enrollment (attendance) verification. For online courses, participation in Canvas serves as confirmation of enrollment verification. In the case that courses are running through remote instruction, having this consistent metric will be the method needed to confirm enrollment verification.
  2. Faculty do NOT need to list due dates in their syllabi after they have created them in Canvas since Canvas will automatically update the syllabi page with these due dates. Canvas assignment due dates will populate the syllabi pages of courses, provide students with notifications, get added to todo lists in Canvas and can be imported into Google calendar.
  3. With faculty using a mix of webinar technologies for class meetings (Google Meet, Zoom and BigBlueButton are all supported by the college) it can be hard for students to know when and how to connect to webinars. Consistently posting webinar info via Google Calendar will support students in scheduling their day. Academic Coaching promotes Google calendar and Canvas assignments can be synced with Google Calendar as well. Some faculty may choose to also post webinar info as Canvas events in their courses.
  4. With so many ways of communicating, it is important to set a standard so that students can expect some consistency across courses. Canvas announcements remain available to students, and if they are consistently used it makes it less likely that students will miss important announcements. Even if there is not a transition to remote instruction, it is important that students know a consistent place for announcements to occur. Assignment grades and feedback are protected by FERPA and should not be shared outside of secure systems. Some assignments may be given in other educational platforms, including online textbook publisher’s platforms, provided the system is FERPA compliant and approved by the College.
  5. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that course materials and instruction be made accessible for students. One common example is video usage; captioning is required under ADA.
  6. Maintaining the current score grade in Canvas is a key retention initiative, helping students and you (in the event of any future grade concern). It allows faculty advisors, academic coaching, academic specialists and SCART team to better support students. Having all faculty utilize the gradebook will allow for the SCART team to report on this data and target early interventions to support students who are struggling academically.

Office of Academic Affairs

Location

Freeman Hall, 3rd Floor
163 S Willard St, Burlington, VT 05401

Office Hours

Monday – Friday
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

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