Covid-19 Accommodations

Accessibility - students with disabilities have the right to course materials of equivalent quality to other students enrolled in a course, and the right to receive it in a similar timeframe. Through remote delivery, instructors can incorporate some simple processes that can benefit all students and their learning. 

Consider recording your synchronous lectures and making them available asynchronously after the fact. This allows students to access the content on their schedules and at a pace appropriate for them and supports students with poor internet connections or limited access to the internet.  

With travel restrictions in place, for some students, learning remotely may involve accessing courses from outside Canada. This can create new challenges in your course, including significant differences in time zones (possibly impacting synchronous activities), as well as accessing content from sanctioned countries. Be aware of students who fall into this category and consider alternative forms of instruction and assessment when feasible.

Post lecture notes, such as PowerPoint slides, to the Content section of your CourseLink site.

Consider using voice-over on uploaded PowerPoint slides to support students learning in an asynchronous format, allowing them to refer to the narration rather than reaching out to schedule a meeting.

Encourage or assign study groups with a volunteer lead or note taker to accommodate for missed classes. This empowers students to work with their peers and can help to create a course community. Tools in CourseLink that could support this include Groups, Discussions and Video Assignments.

For students who are unable to reliably access materials via the internet, consider providing them printed materials, including video transcriptions, lecture notes, readings, etc.

Provide students with information on assessment deadlines within your Course Outline and consider using the Calendar tool to reinforce these dates in your CourseLink site.

Where possible, provide assessment flexibility, such as additional time or changing availability windows, with the special access function in CourseLink Quizzes and Dropbox.

Consider how access to a stable internet connection might affect your assessments. Let students know they can reach out to CourseLink Support for technical assistance with CourseLink during a quiz or exam.

Consider allowing for multiple grading schemes in your course; for example, the highest midterm mark accounts for a greater percentage of the final grade. CourseLink allows for a formula to calculate the final grade to facilitate this.

Assessment flexibility can also be created by using Grade Categories to drop grade items from that category; for example, a quiz grade category could drop the two lowest quiz marks from the category calculation.

For the Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 semesters, the University will not be requiring students to provide verification of illness (doctor’s notes).  

Ask your students how you can help them. By keeping the lines of communication open with students, you will be better able to accommodate and support students throughout the remote delivery period.