Welcome to UCSC! All campus information about teaching during the pandemic is contained on Keep Teaching. A similar site for students is available at Keep Learning.

There are two primary ways for students who are sick or unable to attend class to engage with materials. The first option is for the instructor to use the Lecture Capture system and record in-person class meetings. Lecture Capture is available in all general-assignment classrooms. Learn more about Lecture Capture here. The second option is to temporarily allow emergency remote attendance, which includes real-time engagement from both in-person and remote students. These class or section meetings are taught from UCSC classrooms with remote students who are sick or unable to attend class joining via Zoom. To support this, some small to medium-size rooms are equipped with DTEN Zoom devices; see more about DTEN devices here. More information on what to do if your class needs to shift temporarily to allow emergency remote attendance is available, as is support (online@ucsc.edu).

Other options, for instructors and TAs alike, may include giving students work that they can complete asynchronously, particularly in courses such as studio courses where remote attendance and recording the class may not make sense. Depending on the course, you may want to work directly with the student to allow them to propose ways they can keep up with the course material and show their learning. The Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) and Online Education (OE) are available to consult with any instructor who would like to discuss alternative ways to accommodate students who temporarily cannot attend an in-person class. We strongly encourage instructors to work closely with their TAs to make these decisions transparently and collaboratively.

The key is to consider your learning objectives for the class meeting and how students will accomplish them. If your objectives do not require significant student engagement, using Lecture Capture to record your class session can work well.

• Use a microphone and confirm that your remote students can hear you;

• Assign a TA or a student in your class to monitor Zoom and to let you know when there are raised hands or questions in the chat;

• Regularly pause to solicit participation from remote students;

• Provide students with all necessary materials in Canvas before class sessions;

• Anticipate problems and have a plan for communicating with remote students if something goes wrong;

• Keep contact information for ITS handy!

Depending on what you want to accomplish in your class meetings, you may choose to allow emergency remote attendance in addition to (or instead of) using the Lecture Capture system.

Whether to offer quarter-long instructional accommodations for non-disabilities (emergency remote attendance) is the instructor’s choice. In particular, when a student has signed up for an in-person course, there is no expectation that the instructor must accommodate that student throughout the term remotely.

If you choose to allow emergency remote attendance, consider reaching out to online@ucsc.edu for technical and pedagogical support.

If you choose not to offer a remote option for your course, please consider helping students find an appropriate alternative:

• Encourage them to check the schedule of classes for a remote course

• Direct them to their academic advisor (for students seeking alternative GE courses)

• Direct them to their departmental undergraduate advisor (for students seeking courses in the major).

Absolutely. Rapidly transitioning an entire course to a remote format can be challenging and support is available. Here's a quick guide for your reference. Also, reach out to us at online@ucsc.edu to have one of us walk through your course with you to make sure all of the links and communications are in place.

Direct your students to the list of classrooms reserved for study space, or the Student Space page from the Dean of Students for information on available study spaces.

Graduate and undergraduate students who do not have a functioning laptop or are struggling with poor or no internet should email the Dean of Students office at deanofstudents@ucsc.edu. For a program overview, visit Slug Support.

Students who live on campus and do not have reliable internet access have a few options to improve access. See this webpage from the Dean of Students for additional information.

Consult with your department or program chair to see if there are expectations for office hour formats. If you are a TA, consult with the instructor of record and other members of the teaching team. Many instructors and TAs alike have remarked on the benefits of holding virtual office hours to support student learning, and we expect that this practice will continue beyond the pandemic. Offering students at least some virtual office hours may provide them with more flexibility to attend office hours. Check out the Open Student Hours page for more ideas on practices for office hours/student hours.

If a course is being taught remotely, it should have remote exams. We are happy to provide Zoom Corps proctors for instructors who would like additional help with proctoring online exams. We can also provide instructional design help in creating assessments that are less open to academic integrity violations. In rare cases, instructors do still request ProctorU, though for a variety of reasons we think this choice is not ideal in most cases. The Registrar’s office cannot normally provide room reservations for courses that appear in the catalogue as remote.

If a student is given permission to attend a course remotely for the duration of the quarter (Emergency Remote Attendance, or ERA), the default expectation is that that student will take the exams remotely as well. If an instructor expects students to come to exams in person when they have been given permission for ERA, the instructor should secure written confirmation from the student at the start of the quarter that they understand that they will be expected to take an in person exam. Given that campus housing is full and the rental market in town is abysmal, making it very difficult for students who have been remote earlier in the year to return just for Spring, we hope instructors will consider not requiring students to take exams in person when they are attending an in person course remotely.

While health experts do not expect a return to fully remote instruction, all instructors and teaching teams should be prepared to transition to remote instruction—including final exams—in the event of major campus disruptions.

Yes, instructors who plan to offer exams on Zoom can request support from undergraduate student employees who can assist with proctoring. The process is detailed in this document, and the key first step is the following:

Step 1 (as soon as possible and no later than one week before the exam):

Email help@ucsc.edu with the subject line “Zoom Proctor” and include all of the following information:

• Your course number

• Number of enrolled students

• Number of additional proctors needed

• Date, time, and duration of the exam (if students will have accommodations for time in addition to the stated duration, include the amount of the additional time in your request.)

• Any additional information you would like ITS to consider when assigning proctors to your course (e.g., proctors cannot be majors in the field of the course)

Per campus guidance on instruction, instructors and TAs are asked to refer students to the appropriate campus resources depending on what you know about why they are not comfortable attending class. Below is a list of resources.

• Counseling and Psychological Services: For mental health concerns related to attending class in person

• Student Health Center: For health concerns related to attending class in person

• Disability Resource Center: For disability related concerns related to attending class in person

• Student Conduct: If a student believes other students are out of compliance with health and safety protocol and are putting them at risk

• Additionally, if it is early in the quarter, students should consider seeking advice from an Academic Adviser on options for making progress towards degree completion in remote or online courses.

Exams can be proctored remotely via Zoom or, if you believe you can find no feasible alternative, through ProctorU. If you choose to use Zoom, email online@ucsc.edu for guidance. If you choose to use ProctorU, per requirement of the Academic Senate, use of ProctorU needs to be clearly stated in your syllabus. For questions or assistance with using ProctorU, contact online@ucsc.edu or submit an exam-scheduling request. For students’ questions and concerns, direct them to the ProctorU FAQ section.

• The Lecture Capture system installed in all general-assignment classrooms can be used to record the audio and video of your lectures; it was not designed to allow students to attend remotely.

• If you are teaching in a general-assignment classroom, and you are facilitating the inclusion of remote students, the recommended method is for the instructor or TA to use Zoom from their laptop. Best practices are included here. In some classrooms a DTEN video-conferencing device will be available and use of it may be preferable for facilitating the inclusion of remote students. Support is available by writing to online@ucsc.edu.

  • Amplification in large classrooms: At this time Learning Technologies has a limited number of microphones available for checkout that are designed to work with the amplification systems in large classrooms. If you would like one, use the ITS ticketing system and make your request via SlugHub (formerly ITRequest). Enter keyword "classrooms" and select General Assignment Classrooms. ITS and the instructional continuity working group are in the process of securing more microphones both for vocal amplification and for improved functionality in blended synchronous. Check back in the coming days for information about microphones and where to find them.

  • Amplification in small classrooms: All general assignment classrooms that are too small to have an integrated microphone system now have small standalone sound systems in them. To use that system, take the microphone out of the media cabinet drawer, unplug its USB charging cable, hang it around your neck by its lanyard and press the button on the front of it for a few seconds to turn it on. You should see a blue light come on. Speak into the mic and ask the student in the back of the room if they can hear you through it. If not, turn the volume knob on the grey speaker up. You should see a red or green light on the speaker. If not, someone might have unplugged its power cord. If that is the case, please plug that in to a wall outlet.

• In some divisionally held spaces, equipment to facilitate emergency remote attendance may have been added. These tools, such as DTEN video-conferencing monitors or Meeting Owl camera, mic, and speaker devices, help facilitate the inclusion of remote students and should be used with technical guidance from divisional ITS. If you are teaching in one of these spaces, we recommend that you consult with your Divisional IT Liaison. If you are an instructor with TAs using these spaces to teach sections and labs, please support the team to collaborate on learning to use any tools they may need to utilize in their teaching in order to support the learning goals of the course.

At this time Learning Technologies has a limited number of microphones available for checkout that are designed to work with the amplification systems in large classrooms. If you would like one, use the ITS ticketing system and make your request via SlugHub (formerly ITRequest). Enter keyword "classrooms" and select General Assignment Classrooms.

ITS and the instructional continuity working group are in the process of securing more microphones both for vocal amplification and for improved functionality in blended synchronous. Check back in the coming days for information about microphones and where to find them.

Learning Support Services (LSS) will offer both online and in-person tutoring. In Spring Quarter, The Writing Center will continue to operate online.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 is transmissible as an airborne virus. Following guidance from campus and county health officers, classroom surfaces will be cleaned with the same regularity that they were cleaned prior to the pandemic.

Per the August 27 communication from EVC Kletzer, UCSC’s larger buildings have air handling units that bring in filtered air to the indoor spaces from outside and shunt indoor air back outdoors, while its smaller buildings often have windows that open. For buildings with operable windows, they can be left open, along with doors, for maximum air flow. Portable air purifiers may be requested to move and filter air for smaller classrooms without operable windows through the campus COVID supplies program. Requests should be submitted by Department or building managers, rather than by individual instructors.

Instructional spaces have either operable windows, direct building ventilation, or both. Buildings with forced air ventilation have been adjusted to maximize outside air to the extent mechanically possible. Please note that this adjustment will impact temperature control within; dress appropriately. Building air filters have also been upgraded to MERV 13.

Portable HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) filters will be placed in spaces where they may have an appreciable impact.

Instructional spaces will be supplied with disposable surgical-style masks and hand sanitizer.

Please reach out to your department manager or college administration. For winter quarter, classroom COVID supplies will be maintained by Custodial Services. If your classroom needs additional supplies, please submit a request form through the campus Work Order process. TAs are encouraged to speak with the instructor of record, who can make requests at the department level.

No. To allow instructors and students the most flexibility with their space, classroom furniture will be unaltered. Additionally, no specific physical distancing rules are currently part of CDC, CDPH, or Santa Cruz public health guidance. Campus members are encouraged to distance when possible and be respectful of others’ personal space. Consider explicitly discussing community guidelines with your class, so that students and members of the teaching team alike can collaborate on creating shared expectations for interactions and engagement when teaching and learning in person.

Lecture Capture records in-person classroom sessions and makes them available for students to review asynchronously. It records the content shown on the projector(s) and the classroom audio, and can optionally include a camera directed at the front of the room. Recordings are stored in the YuJa media management system and are automatically published for your students to review. Lecture Capture is currently available in all general assignment classrooms. Use of Lecture Capture is optional — recording of classes is scheduled only at the instructor’s request.

Requests for Lecture Capture can be made through this webpage. Importantly, courses are captured only with the permission of the course instructor, so you must specifically request Lecture Capture be scheduled for your class.

Yes, if you are teaching an in-person lecture course, we recommend that you use the new Lecture Capture system. While watching a recorded lecture is not a substitute for attending a class meeting, having recordings of lectures available to students is known to support student learning, and if students are sick or unable to attend, the recordings are likely to help them keep up with course work. One of the things most frequently reported by students as an “upside” of pandemic era remote instruction was the availability of recordings of lectures.

Per the UCSC Privacy Office, consent is not required but you must notify students that the class session is being recorded.

Here are some best practices for recording class sessions:

• Let students know the class will be recorded and inform them that it will only be shared with other students who are enrolled in your course;

• If using Zoom to record, make sure you are in Speaker view, rather than Gallery view (or, use the “Pin” feature in Zoom to pin your own video);

• Share the recording with your students by uploading it to YuJa and then embedding it in a Canvas page or publishing it to your class in YuJa (here is how) — both of these approaches ensure the video can only be viewed by the people in the class. Note: Instructor accounts are automatically configured to transfer recordings made with Zoom Cloud Recording to YuJa. This process includes auto-captioning and will complete within a few hours of when recording ends. Recordings are then available in YuJa to be published to your class or embedded directly into a Canvas page.

If you are using the Lecture Capture system with video turned on, the classroom camera is positioned to record only the instructor and whiteboard area in the front of the room. Incidental recording of other people will only occur if they move into or through that area. Audio is also only captured by the instructor’s microphone or ceiling mics designed to amplify the instructor’s voice. For this reason, if students ask questions you will likely want to repeat them so they show up on the recording.

In any case, make sure to notify students of the class being recorded, and in addition to allowing students to ask questions during the class, offer them the option to ask questions after class or during office hours when Zoom or Lecture Capture is not being used to record.

There’s more than one way to take attendance for both groups of students, and we encourage you to seek support if you have any questions (online@ucsc.edu). Here are a few options for attendance:

• Use the Zoom attendance tool to turn your Zoom attendance report into a grade in the Canvas gradebook.

• Assign an exit ticket (a short, low-stakes reflection or comprehension assessment at the end of a class session) to both groups of students.

• Assign a short quiz in Canvas with an access code that you give students at the end of the class session, or with questions that only students who attended the session can answer correctly.

There are two approaches you can take if you have both in-person and remote students:

1. Record your class sessions with the new Lecture Capture system and make them available to remote students. If you choose this approach, it isn’t necessary to schedule Zoom meetings for your sessions. In general, exclusively attending an in person by lecture capture does not provide an equivalent learning experience and in most cases should be avoided.

2. Temporarily facilitate the inclusion of students who are unable to attend in person due to an emergency (emergency remote attendance). With this approach, you should schedule Zoom meetings for all class meetings at the beginning of the quarter. Support is available (online@ucsc.edu).

A DTEN is a large screen device (think of a huge iPad or tablet), either 55 inch or 75 inch, that is available in some General Assignment classrooms as well as some departmental spaces. When the device is invited to a meeting with Zoom, it will display the Zoom session on the screen, making it easier for the instructor, the in-class students, and the remote participants to interact. The entire display is a touchscreen.

DTENs will be available in some General Assignment classrooms when in-person instruction starts on January 31, 2022. Consult this list of available DTENs to see if your classroom is equipped with one, or scheduled to have one installed. Additionally, some academic divisions have procured DTENs for use in divisionally-controlled spaces. Consult with your Divisional ITS staff to check availability.

Contact the Classrooms team to find out if there is a roving unit available for your class. Reach the Classrooms team through help@ucsc.edu. You can also contact your department to see if they have a unit available.

No. You can use Zoom on your laptop to provide access to remote students without a DTEN. However, the experience is improved for all participants when there is a large screen devoted to providing the Zoom meeting display.

Refer to this document for help setting up a Zoom meeting that includes a DTEN.

Refer to this document for help starting a Zoom meeting that includes a DTEN.

This is optional. If you wish to include all of the students in your class in the Zoom invite, use the Zoom link in Canvas to schedule your Zoom meetings. This ensures that all of the students have access to the information on the scheduled Zoom meetings.

You may prefer to only provide the information to join the meeting via Zoom to those students that are known to you to be remote. In this case, you can schedule the meeting in Google and only invite the students who have your permission to join remotely.

Be sure that anyone who is in the classroom and joining a Zoom meeting that includes a DTEN is reminded to turn off the speakers and microphone on their computer. Audio interference will occur if they do not.

Instructor Notifications

We worked closely with Student Health Services, the Dean of Students, Counsel, and ITS to develop a system automatically notifying primary instructors if a student in the class needs to isolate or quarantine through Student Health Services. We were particularly concerned about midterms, and the difficulties instructors might face anticipating who would be able to attend in person classes or midterms, or, in some cases, even remote ones, due to illness or being quarantined or isolated.

The notification system captures many students in Q/I, but with students living off campus or out of the area, and with many of us using rapid tests, it cannot be comprehensive. A student may well tell you that they need to be out for isolation or quarantine, even if you did not receive a notification from the health center. This does not mean the student is misleading you. They may simply not have tested through the primary campus testing systems. If a student tells you they have tested positive and they live on campus or off-campus in the area, remind them to notify the Health Center via their Health eMessenger portal so they can be included in campus COVID response protocols. Students in particular categories—including students with an exemption from the vaccination requirement—may be instructed to quarantine if their roommate tests positive for COVID-19.

Badges

We have had a lot of questions about students with yellow badges. Here's what yellow badges mean:

YELLOW (OVERDUE):

Yes, you may come to campus/on-site but you have one or more outstanding compliance requirements:

• You have not met your COVID-19 testing requirement.

• You have not completed your primary series of COVID-19 vaccinations and do not have an approved exemption.

• You are booster eligible and currently overdue. Please contact the Student Health Center to make an appointment to get boosted. Please take immediate action.

Please note that access to campus services and classes may be impacted as follows:

• For dining — overdue testing eligible for a “to go” meal only.

• For campus business services — eligible for online services only.

• For various advising — eligible for online advising only.

• For classes and labs — eligible for attendance.

• Recreational facilities — a green badge is required.

If a student has a yellow badge, they should be admitted to class. There are other restrictions to incentivize getting back into compliance with symptom checks, testing, and/or vaccinations.

Campus COVID protocols are developed by medical professionals in close coordination with the California Department of Public Health and Santa Cruz County. We expect that guidance will continue to be updated as the State and County respond in real time to COVID-19. If you have questions about instruction, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at CITL.

Employees can use check@ucsc.edu for info about exposures or classroom questions. Students should always go through health e messenger.

Some good news: As of April 2022, 94% of our student body is up to date on their vaccines (or have an approved exemption) and 97% of our on-campus residents are up to date.

Groups/departments who would like to obtain free rapid antigen tests can do so by filling out this form.

Those who would like free rapid antigen tests for personal use can obtain them either at the Bay Tree Campus Store (formerly, the bookstore) or at the base of campus, outside the Barn Theater.

Here's to a healthy and COVID-free spring quarter.

Effective April 10, masks are no longer required for most indoor settings at UC Santa Cruz facilities, but their use is still strongly recommended. Masks are still required on campus public transportation, in the Early Education Services centers, and in clinical settings.

The campus has determined that appropriate indoor masking with N95, KN95, KN94, or a surgical mask underneath a cloth mask is key to minimizing on-campus transmission.

There are four types of face coverings available on the Resource Request Form: Cloth masks, single-use surgical masks, KN95 masks, and N95 respirators. Additionally, KN95 or surgical masks can be picked up at a variety of locations on campus including: Bay Tree Bookstore, McHenry Library, Science and Engineering Library, Merrill Cultural Center, and Kerr Hall. Details on locations and hours are available here. Instructors can inform their students of this resource, but please do not pick up masks for your students.

The campus has provided direction for instructors regarding classroom masking.

Effective April 10, masks are not required for most indoor settings at UC Santa Cruz facilities, but their use is still strongly recommended. Masks are still required on campus public transportation, in the Early Education Services centers, and in clinical settings.

Direction for classroom masking is available here.

Yes, see the following:

IF ASKING TO CHECK STUDENTS’ BADGES

“Hi, thank you so much for coming to my (office/event/class/lab)! I want to make sure we provide an environment that promotes health, well-being, and a place where everyone feels safe and comfortable in the (office/event/class/lab)! Can I check your student badge to make sure you can attend in-person today?”

Or

“Hi, great to see everyone. I want to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable, so in future class meetings the Teaching Assistant(s) and I will be checking badges from time to time as you enter the classroom. We’ll check the whole class on days when we do check badges—but we don’t plan to do this for every class meeting. Please be prepared to show your badge as you enter the class.”

IF A STUDENT’S BADGE IS YELLOW (OVERDUE)

“Oh, it looks like you are overdue for either your weekly COVID-19 test or you have not submitted your daily symptom survey. If you haven’t submitted your survey, you can do it quickly before my in-person lecture/section/lab. If you haven’t taken your test yet, you can attend today, but you need to get tested before our next class. If you fall behind in testing or the daily COVID symptom checklist, you may be contacted by Student Conduct.”

Alternatively, if you have a remote option for students to participate in your course and a student’s badge is yellow because they are overdue for testing, you can say: “If you haven’t taken your test yet, please go home and attend by Zoom, but please get tested before our next class. If you fall behind in testing or the daily COVID symptom checklist, you may be contacted by Student Conduct.”

IF A STUDENT’S BADGE IS RED (ISOLATION OR QUARANTINE)

“Oh, it looks like your badge is red. You should return to your dorm or home immediately, or contact the Student Health Center to see if there has been some mistake with your health information. You can’t be in my in-person lecture/section/lab today, and I look forward to seeing you when you’re green again. Please stay isolated until then. Take care.”

IF A STUDENT’S BADGE IS BLUE (N/A)

“Oh, it looks like you don’t regularly come to campus. In order to be here, you need to complete your COVID-19 Symptom Survey. You can do it quickly before the lecture/section/lab. Once your badge is green, you can join us in the classroom. Thanks!”

Students Who Do Not Comply

If you are checking badges, failure by a student to comply and present their badge may result in restrictions to access or limits on participation and may result in a referral to Student Conduct.

If the student is unwilling to comply with your request, you may end class early for the well-being of all. Please report incidents to the office of Student Conduct (conduct@ucsc.edu or via the online form) and provide the student's name, SID and other relevant information.

Students are expected to adhere to any face covering requirements in effect in the same way that they are expected to conform to elements of the Student Code of Conduct or other campus policies.

Effective April 10, masks are not be required for most indoor settings at UC Santa Cruz facilities, but their use is still strongly recommended. Masks are still required on campus public transportation, in the Early Education Services centers, and in clinical settings.

If a student arrives to a setting where face coverings are required by the campus without a face covering, you can remind the student of the requirement and ask them to put on their face covering. If the student refuses to put one on, you may ask the student to leave, just as you would ask a student who is being disruptive to either cease their disruptive behavior or leave. If the student is unwilling to comply with your request, you may end class early for the well-being of all. Please report incidents to the office of Student Conduct and provide the student's name, SID and other relevant information.

You should not call UCPD to report failure to wear a face covering. UCPD is not charged with enforcement of face-covering requirements and failure to wear a face covering is not a police emergency.

Yes, all students are required to be tested for COVID-19 upon returning to campus. Specific testing requirements vary per student population, and detailed information is available here.

When a student tests positive through the campus testing facilities, a notification will be sent to instructors of in-person classes, studios, and labs. Instructors should then notify the members of the teaching team, including TAs and any learning assistants who attend that class, if they need this information to maintain student records (such as attendance) and keep track of students in isolation. Encourage students who test positive at home to notify you of their positive test and also to report their positive test to the Student Health Center using Health e-Messenger.

For the most recent information on the student badge system (including an update about admitting students with yellow badges to class), see the February 2022 procedural guidance titled COVID-19 Compliance: Student Badge Protocol.

They can get the badge with any device with a web browser.

If they want, they can show it on their laptop or iPad or print a copy of it every day.

If they don't have a device with a web browser, they can request one.

When you are notified that a student in the course has tested positive, you should forward the message to other members of the teaching team who regularly attend class in person. TAs and tutors may not be included in that messaging if their information is not clearly provided in AIS. Asymptomatic testing is available on campus. Symptomatic students should go to the Student Health Center to be tested. Symptomatic instructors/faculty should contact their health provider to find out where symptomatic testing is being offered.

Following CDC and CDPH guidance, people who are fully vaccinated, including booster dose, with no COVID-like symptoms do not need to quarantine or be restricted from work following an exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed COVID-19. Public health guidance regarding isolation and quarantine can change. Visit the CDPH COVID website for current guidelines.

At the start of the term in your syllabus language, and regularly throughout the term, remind students not to come to class if they are feeling unwell. Given the range of symptoms associated with COVID-19, any student with cold- or flu-like symptoms should be encouraged to stay home and to get tested at the Student Health Center. Students who feel well enough should be encouraged to attend class remotely if you are offering a remote option, or to review lecture or other class materials as they would have pre-pandemic in cases of student illness.

Per the latest CDC, CDPH, and Santa Cruz County guidance, individuals who test positive are expected to isolate for five days from either onset of symptoms or date of the positive test, whichever comes first. Isolation may be extended if symptoms persist. After a negative antigen test at least five days from the beginning of isolation, asymptomatic individuals can leave isolation but should continue to be vigilant about mask wearing outside the home for at least another five days.

Public health guidance regarding isolation and quarantine can change. Visit the CDPH COVID website for current guidelines.

Online: A course offering format that is expressed in synchronous or asynchronous instruction (more on that below), without meetings in a physical space, and only includes courses that have been approved by the Academic Senate Committee on Courses of Instruction (CCI).

Remote: Remote instruction, which emerged on a large scale in March 2020 as “emergency remote instruction,” refers to the type of instruction that is primarily being offered during the current pandemic and that is likely to be used during significant campus disruptions in the future. This includes courses that would normally be taught in person but are being offered remotely due to COVID-19. The majority of these courses have not gone through the Academic Senate’s formal process for course approval to be taught in an online format and are being taught in a remote format during the pandemic only. Courses being taught during this period of remote instruction are commonly synchronous (Zoom-based offerings) with set course meeting times, but these courses may also incorporate asynchronous materials such as pre-recorded lectures.

In Person: Courses in which lectures or seminars are offered in-person with a single modality of instruction by the primary instructor. For those lecture courses that have discussion sections/secondary labs, these may or may not be held in person pending the availability of classrooms. As in the past, instructors may elect to teach in a classroom with webcast functionality, and to make recordings of their lectures available to students.

Synchronous: Instruction that is characterized by its use of videoconferencing software to facilitate face-to-face, real-time interaction with students. Similar to courses taught in person, synchronous online courses are also characterized by their use of set meeting times that are advertised to students when they enroll.

Asynchronous: Instruction that is characterized by its reliance on lectures, engagement activities, assessments, or other course materials that are pre-recorded and carefully pre-planned for students who will have minimal (or no) face-to-face, real-time interactions. Unlike fully synchronous or in-person courses, asynchronous courses do not have set meeting times that are advertised to students when they enroll; instead, students typically access the materials at a time of their choosing within the timeframe specified by the instructor (e.g., all of week three materials might be available on the first day of week three). That said, all UCSC asynchronous courses give students at least some opportunities every week for synchronous engagement, i.e., real-time interaction with the instructional team and with other students in the class, including office hours or problem set working groups. Final exams in asynchronous courses require a fixed three-hour time block that will need to be offered during one of the “non-standard” times in the final exam schedule. Because students may have conflicts with exams in their other asynchronous classes, faculty teaching asynchronous courses should also offer alternate exam times.

Hybrid: A term used generally to describe models of teaching and learning that include multiple modalities in one course. These might be asynchronous and in-person, synchronous and in-person, asynchronous and synchronous, etc. Hybrid is a broad term and can quickly lead to confusion, hence it is advisable to use more specific terms to refer to modalities of instruction.

Flipped: Flipped classrooms involve a teaching technique that combines the strengths of asynchronous and synchronous formats with a synchronous in-person or remote (Zoom-based) element that is characterized by the use of active learning techniques that often prioritize student engagement through group work. Each student is expected to engage with both the in-person and the remote elements.

Emergency Remote Attendance: An in-person course where, due to an emergency situation, a student(s) attend(s) remotely while the majority of students attend in person. In-person courses that include emergency remote attendance were not designed or formally approved by the academic senate for dual modalities. Requests for remote attendance originate from the student who is experiencing an emergency, and are voluntarily considered by the instructor.

Blended Synchronous: Class meetings or entire courses that include real-time engagement from both in-person and remote students. These class meetings or courses are taught from classrooms on UCSC campuses with remote students joining via Zoom. All students, remote and in-person, are given opportunities to engage in real-time.

HyFlex: A course design model that can include student participation that is in-person, synchronous (Zoom-based), and asynchronous (recordings of synchronous class meetings). Students in this model are often given flexibility to choose their mode of attendance, which may differ from one class meeting to the next. This model suffers from providing modalities that can lead to inequities in student learning, and a variant on the HyFlex model that attempts to address these concerns is Blended Synchronous (defined above), which excludes an option for an asynchronous modality. This model requires substantial time, effort, attention, agility, and technical skill of instructors.

Sections: This term is used across campus, often to refer to two different things. For this reason, we recommend adding additional context where appropriate:

1. Offerings: In general, the term “section” can refer to each scheduled primary version of a course. For example, if the ANTH 3 lecture is scheduled to be offered twice in the quarter, to different sets of students, each of these class offerings might be referred to as a section. When referring to primary courses, using the words “offering” or “class” might reduce ambiguity.

2. Secondary Sections: the word “section” is also sometimes used to refer to the secondary components of a course: discussion sections and/or secondary labs. These are the smaller sections that are scheduled secondary to a primary course offering, generally taught by TAs. Student enrollment may be mandatory or optional, depending on the course. Using the words “secondary sections” or “discussion sections” where possible will reduce confusion.