1/5/21 Academic Affairs Brief
Faculty & Academic Staff Email Updates Sent Bi-Weekly
This Brief Includes:
- Spring Calendar & Course Planning Information
- Upcoming CLT Events
- Student Experience Grant Information
- Google Hangouts Transition to Google Chat
SPRING CALENDAR & COURSE PLANNING INFORMATION
Happy New Year! We hope you have all enjoyed a much-needed break and are feeling rested for the coming semester.
The College continues to monitor the pandemic spread and the latest pandemic news. As of today, we plan to stay the course welcoming residential students back on January 23/24 for a two-week campus quarantine with virtual classes starting on January 25th. In-person instruction will begin on February 8th. The Spring 2021 Academic Calendar is here. The semester is 15 weeks long and does NOT include a separate finals week. The last day of the Spring semester is May 7th. There is no scheduled Spring Break.
As the days progress if there are any changes to the semester plans we will communicate with you immediately. As always, please watch your Champlain email, the View and this briefing for any important updates.
Overall, the College is targeting Week 8 (March 15th-19th) for specific respite events, with Student Affairs planning a series of these events. As you work on course prep over the next few weeks keep in mind the Faculty Senate approved Spring 2021 Course standards. Within the Highly Recommended Course and Practice Guidelines, #7 provides some recommendations for reducing the impact of missing a spring break in Spring 2021 for your consideration.
UPCOMING CLT EVENTS
The Center for Learning & Teaching, in collaboration with faculty leaders and other offices, is offering a wide range of drop-in clinics, workshops, and webinars starting this week and continuing until the start of classes! This week’s sessions, which are intended to help you make informed decisions about your teaching strategies this Spring, include:
drop-in clinic on student engagement (Jan. 5, 1:30-4pm)
a workshop on using InSpace (Jan. 6, 5-6pm)
open hours for drop-in consultations about Canvas gradebook setup, student engagement, captioning, InSpace, NameCoach, creating Canvas content, and more (Jan. 7, 4-6:30pm)
Please see your Google Calendar for invites with links, and this document for easy-to-read descriptions and future events through January, including alternate days and times for this week’s sessions.
STUDENT EXPERIENCE GRANT INFORMATION
The John W. Heisse, Jr. M.D. Endowment Fund was established in 2005 by trustee emeritus Dr. John W. Heisse, Jr. who served on the Champlain College Board of Trustees from 1970 to 1980. The fund was established to provide financial support for special initiatives and projects developed by full-time faculty or staff to provide co-curricular programming for students and the community.
The Fund for the Student Experience is used to award funding for a faculty or staff member organizing a meaningful experience for students. In the past, the fund has been used to foster engagement in international travel, retreats, conferences, fees for service trips, and other similar experiences. Given the realities of COVID-19, we imagine the use of funds this year will look differently--for example, for virtual conference attendance, community book reads, invited speaker presentations, film screenings, and so forth. However, we are confident that the creativity of faculty and staff will lead to COVID-safe proposals that will simultaneously enhance student experience. More information is available on the application form.
Applications must be received by January 31, 2021.
The office of the Provost and Academic Deans will meet in February to make decisions for annual allocation/distribution of funds. Distribution of Funds decisions will be communicated to faculty or staff applicants by February 15, 2021.
GOOGLE HANGOUTS TRANSITION TO GOOGLE CHAT
We’re excited to share that we’ll be transitioning everyone at Champlain to Google Chat. Chat has a modern user interface, team rooms that support better team collaboration, emoji reactions to make work fun, and bots to help you be more productive and much more.
Beginning January 12, 2021, all teams will be using Chat for 1:1 direct messages (DMs), group chats, and team discussions. Classic Hangouts apps will no longer be available.
How do I get Google Chat?
- Explore the new Web experience at chat.google.com.
- Download the new mobile app for Android or iOS.
- Download the new standalone desktop app if you've been using the classic Hangouts Chrome extension or app. You can access the desktop app from a prompt that appears in chat.google.com
- Refresh your Gmail to get the new Chat in Gmail experience.
Where do I find my old chats?
- You can continue recent conversations from classic Hangouts in Google Chat. Over time, older conversations from classic Hangouts will also migrate to Google Chat.
- All previous chat history from classic Hangouts will be accessible in Gmail.
- The classic Hangouts web interface for chat, hangouts.google.com will remain available during this transition, but you can’t use classic Hangouts by visiting hangouts.google.com in a mobile browser.
What are the limitations of Chat?
- If you start rooms in Chat with the option for threaded conversations, these rooms will not appear to people who still use classic Hangouts.
Where do I go for help?
- For more information about the new Chat, go to the G Suite Learning Center or contact Champ Support.