Instructional Continuity Planning – Canvas Not Available

If class is interrupted and Canvas are also unavailable, you will need to use a combination of other tools to continue instruction.

Email might seem to be a convenient alternative. However, it is ineffective for carrying out the majority of core instructional activities, such as delivering lectures, encouraging student participation, and administering assignments, tests, and grades. Moreover, message overload and management will be demanding and difficult for you.

A more effective method for continuing instruction would be utilizing the combination of an online conferencing tool and G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps @ UNC Charlotte) because they enable you not only to deliver lectures but also facilitate administering assignments and tests and encouraging student participation.

Online Conferencing

G Suite (formerly Google Apps @ UNC Charlotte)

G Suite provides the following capabilities for you and your students:

  • Docs: You and your students can create, edit collaboratively and email diverse kinds of documents including text documents, presentations, spreadsheets and forms. You can also track who has contributed to the collaborative work.
  • Sites: You can create a website and allow students to edit it.
  • Calendar: You can create a class calendar and share it with students.
  • Start Page: You can create a portal for your class.

Email

You can communicate with your entire class by sending emails via Banner Self Service. See the FAQ, How do I email my class from Banner Self Service?

Please note that E-mail is not secure and you should NOT include personal confidential information.

If you are going to use E-mail as your primary communication medium, you will need to be prepared to deal with a massive flow of messages and a large number of email addresses effectively. In Gmail, you can utilize the following options to manage emails:

  • Create labels under your Inbox.
  • Configure automatic sorting of incoming E-mails into specific labels through Gmail Filters.
  • Create groups of E-mail addresses in your Google Contacts so that you can choose a group E-mail address instead of typing or selecting E-mail addresses of individual students each time.

Instant Messaging

You can also utilize the following non-university supported instant messaging programs to communicate with individual or small groups of students:

Handling Assignments, Tests and Grades

At the end of the semester, you will need to upload your finalgrades into Banner. For tutorials, please refer to:

Please note that, unlike Canvas, none of the tools have any functionality that will help you to ensure students’ academic integrity.