Preface

Friday, March 13th, 2020 was the last day of face-to-face classes at the University of Guelph. As I spoke to my Introduction to Biochemistry class that day, announcements were being made across the province that we were officially closing down and everyone should go home.

What followed were weeks of frenetic activity around how to make lecture recordings using voice-over-PowerPoint, picture-in-picture videos of lectures, and how to use greenscreens. That was followed quickly with how to set up online exams and how does a lockdown browser and Respondus work?

Somehow we made it through and over time we refined what we wanted to do and how we wanted to run our classes. What you find in this book is the collection of all of the resources that the COESP put together during the pandemic in anticipation of what was needed, or responding to the needs of instructors in the College. Those resources are here for you to help as you consider remote teaching and as a record of what we did.

What you won’t see are many of the one-on-one emails with instructors helping them through a specific issue or asking for advice about something they were planning. And you won’t see the regular check-in emails  with instructors just asking them how it was going. There was a lot of that and it was challenging, exhausting and rewarding.

I am very proud of the work that everyone has done during this coronavirus pandemic. I have been so impressed with how instructors have adapted their courses for online delivery and taking into consideration the added stress on their students, while they themselves were under tremendous pressure. I am particularly thankful to Charlene Winchcombe-Forhan and Jason McAlister for their tireless support of the CBS teaching community and work on the COESP as its very active staff members. The strength of our community, even though we were not physically together, helped us through and I am grateful.

John Dawson, Director, COESP
Dec 10, 2020