New Features on Website to Support Remote Teaching, Learning, and Working

March 22nd, 2020 - 5:52pm

Dear College Community,
 
WE ARE HERE TO HELP! We want everyone to feel supported as they begin remote teaching, learning, and working in earnest tomorrow. We’ve added new features on the COM homepage and hope you’ll click around and get familiar with the new content, then help others do the same.

What's New? 

Under the heading TOP STORIES (below the slideshow carousel), there are three thumbnails:

  • STUDENTS AND FACULTY START HERE: This page has resource guides for students, faculty, and staff with information, various resources and training, and other tips that are helpful for learning, teaching, and working remotely.
  • UPDATES AND RESOURCES: All COVID-19 updates will continue to be posted here. For ease of use, direct links to the student, faculty, and staff resource guides (as described above) have been added to this page.
  • CANCELED EVENTS: We will continue to maintain a list of canceled events and activities on this page.

All of these pages will be updated as new information becomes available.

On the COM homepage, we added quick links under WE CAN HELP (right side of page) that go to the:

  • ASK US button/form—where students, faculty, and staff can submit requests for help
  • RESOURCE GUIDES—information specific to the needs of students, faculty, and staff
  • SUPPORT SERVICES—services COM will offer remotely and additional off-campus support services for our community

We’ve also added a COVID-19 UPDATES banner to some of the main pages on the COM website, which links back to the updated content described in this email.

Please encourage people to use the ASK US button rather than emailing questions directly to an individual. We created a system which will allow for quicker response times than a direct email and will prevent questions and requests from falling through the cracks, since they will be tracked. Students, faculty, and staff can submit requests for help in a variety of areas related to learning, teaching, and working remotely; and a team of people across disciplines and departments are ready to respond as the requests come in.

This past week has been interesting and filled with challenges. We are adapting to new ways of working, and with everyone's help we will rise to meet the challenges. Tomorrow, the systems, information, and resources we’ve been working to build will be tested. Count on it being a bumpy ride, but also count on what’s behind all of this—our goal to provide learning continuity—and progress toward that goal in such a short time frame has been astounding. 

Thank you,
Nicole Cruz, MPA
Director of Marketing and Communications