Frequently Asked Questions

The Pullman Campus is currently scheduling in-person instruction for Fall 2021. Distance Delivery is not an option except when there is a lecture/lab and the other component has "regular and substantive interaction".

If a large lecture course has a lab attached to it, would the lab count as the course’s in-person experience?

Yes. The same would be true for a practicum, discussion or recitation section.

Courses with both a lecture and lab component are considered one course, and the lecture or lab may be taught online. Code each section separately and use the instruction mode page to help with coding.

Are there provisions for instructors who may not be comfortable teaching in-person completely?

Contact the Provost's Office for the exception process.

Previous message: As vaccine rollout accelerates and caseloads decrease regionally, this may be less of an issue in a few months’ time. Most courses should be scheduled as in-person or “some online” (at least 25% in-person, ideally more).

A literal interpretation of the instructions for hybrid sections seems to suggest one face-to-face meeting in the semester would suffice for the expectation of an in-person experience. Will it?

This definition of “hybrid” was not intended to offer a definition of what a sufficiently in-person experience would be in present circumstances. The flexible code to use is now “SO” which allows for 25% to 99% of the course to be in person.

Will faculty be able to post the reading material or recordings prior to class and use their assigned room/time for discussion/problem solving to still meet the in-person requirement?

Yes, this is a good approach.

Will faculty be responsible for classroom sanitation and for managing space limits?

Health and safety practices are evolving as vaccines become more widespread and the state and county allow greater return to normal business. Updated guidelines will be communicated to faculty as soon as they are finalized.

Will the classrooms be equipped to be Zoom compatible? E.g., with instructors lecturing in a classroom and a subset of students attending in-person, will it be seamlessly broadcast via Zoom for students attending remotely that day? If yes, will this also allow for interaction by remote students (e.g., remote students asking question during class)?

All Pullman general university classrooms have the ability to do basic Zoom, though they are not full videoconference spaces. The in-room computers have camera/mic and primary zoom connections; the instructor will need to teach within view of the camera. The whiteboard will not be visible, though the document camera or annotation monitors should work, if they are available. The instructor can bring their own device, if that is preferred. Discussion among students at the different sites may be limited.

They may if they wish to, but are not asked to do so across the board. Lecture capture should suffice to handle extended student absences from illness.

Department and scheduler resources for CANVAS are available in confluence. Link to confluence and Canvas resources.

Course content will not be migrated to Canvas unless a request is submitted for the course. Course shells are created in Canvas once the department/course scheduler flags the course in myWSU. In order to migrate course content users will need to contact migrationhelp@wsu.edu.

The Canvas team plans to begin loading content for the Fall in the coming weeks, and will send a communication once the process is ready.

• If users would like to structure their content early, they may create a new sandbox here: https://esg-apps.it.wsu.edu/canvas-sandbox/

• Once the course space for Fall 2021 is created, users can then copy the content from the sandbox to the course space by following these steps: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-copy-content-from-another-Canvas-course-using-the/ta-p/1012