Online Learning Information

March 30, 2020

Dear Students,

As we move into the third week of our Virtual Campus, I would like to thank you all for being so willing to work with our new reality. Hopefully, all our preventative measures will pay off and we will emerge from this ready to come back to our beautiful campus to be with one another again.

Over the past two weeks we have heard from students both in support and in opposition to moving our course grading for the Spring 2020 semester to a Pass/Fail grading format. In consultation with the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate, the Deans and the President’s Cabinet, we are providing flexibility in permitting the choice of the following undergraduate grading format for this semester. This policy will be in place only for the Spring 2020 semester.

Pass (P) = Grade of D (65 or better) Full course credit earned

                 Fail (F) = Grade of F (64 or less) No credit earned

Students will have the opportunity to opt in to Pass/Fail Grading format in consultation with their course instructors and academic advisors. Information on the process of how to elect pass/fail options will be forthcoming from the Registrar’s office within the next two weeks.  There is no rush to make this decision now: The deadline is Monday, May 4, 2020, and you may decide and/or change your mind based on your progress up until that date.

Information regarding the official process will be posted on the webpage

https://felician.edu/academics/office-of-the-registrar/ and an email will be sent to students Felician email address as soon as the information is available.

While this may seem a great opportunity for all, here are some reasons for staying with the current letter grade option:

1.      You are doing well in your course and expect to continue to do well

2.      Your expected course grade will raise your GPA or be consistent with your current GPA

3.      You need a letter grade to raise your GPA to meet probationary requirements

4.      Your major requires graduate school/licensing and at this time it is not clear how a “P” will be read by some professional programs/licensing associations

5.      You need a letter grade to maintain the GPA required for your current major

6.      You need a letter grade to maintain your eligibility for participation in your chosen sport

If you are thinking about opting for the P/F grade, you need to make the decision in consultation with the instructor(s) of the course(s) in which you wish to exercise that option. You should also discuss this option with your academic advisor.

Your informed decision must be made by May 4, 2020. Your course instructor must be notified on or before that date.

Again please also take time to discuss this option with your advisor as the choice may not be appropriate at this time for some of you; for others it will make sense given any of the extenuating circumstances that this pandemic has placed upon many of us.

Students who are pursuing careers in healthcare, education or other professional careers should be sure to address this option with their advisors. The reason for this is that at this time there is no guarantee that professional organizations or licensing boards will allow a grace period for this semester.

 Please consult your School Dean to understand which courses will not be included in this option.

Please remember: If you choose the P/F option you will have to complete the process as posted at https://felician.edu/academics/office-of-the-registrar/ on or before May 4, 2020.

Once again, I cannot stress the importance of consulting with your course instructor and advisor before making this decision.

I wish all of you a successful semester and hope that you remain safe and healthy.

Sincerely,

Sylvia McGeary, PhD

Vice President for Academic Affairs and

Mission Integration

Dear Students,

We hope this letter finds your learning progressing as the semester continues. As you are aware, all Universities and Colleges are seeking to navigate through the challenges of the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID -19). Our goal is to ensure your continued safety and the continuation of your education this semester. Thus, out of an abundance of caution, Felician University has moved all classes to a Virtual Campus (online without face to face classes). All University support resources are available online.

You will be expected to log on to your classes in Brightspace at the same time as you would go to that class just as if it were being held on campus. In other words, your professors will deliver the class online at the same times you would be in the classroom each week.

Your individual professors will be in touch with you regarding any course-specific arrangements for this virtual setting; however, we wish to provide you with some basics and some tools for this experience.

As you know, the University’s Learning Management System and primary online tool is D2L Brightspace. It can be accessed through any browser; simply go to Felician.edu, click on “My Felician” and you will see the link to Brightspace. In the event that you are on a phone instead of a computer, and are unable to access the Felician website, you can access the related app called “Pulse” (available for free in the App Store and Play Store, depending on your platform. When you enter Pulse, it will ask for your school, input “Felician University” and it will take you to the same login page you would be on if you clicked the link on “My Felician.”

The University’s tool for synchronous video connection is “Zoom.” Most faculty will use this tool for their scheduled classroom sessions and will be expecting you to log on to Zoom for the duration of each class as well. Likewise, if you schedule a conference with your Advisor during this period, they may send you a Zoom invitation. Any browser will allow you to connect to Zoom. If you are using your phone for Zoom, please download the Zoom app (also available in the App Store and Play Store).

These can appear as trying times, but we face these challenges together as a community, with our Felician Franciscan values to guide us.

Below this letter is information about practices and connections unique to individual schools; remember that individual faculty may send you additional specifications or requirements. We are also attaching information provided by the Center for Online and Digital Learning with contact information for anyone with questions regarding accessing Brightspace during this time. We wish you continued success in the remainder of the term. We will see you online for now.

Sincerely,

Sylvia McGeary
Vice President for Academic Affairs

Robert Clougherty
Vice President for Academic Affairs Vice President for Technology, Design, and Innovation


Individual School Notes and Practices
SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

All on ground classes will meet using Brightspace and Zoom for the entire duration of each class session. Faculty and students will log on at the class start time and will be in class for the entire scheduled class session each day the course is scheduled.

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

All on ground classes will meet using Brightspace and Zoom for the entire duration of each class session. Faculty and students will log on at the class start time and will be in class for the entire scheduled class session each day the course is scheduled.

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

All field work and student teaching is subject to decisions made by the hosting district. Students will be informed of any and all changes as the School of Education becomes aware of them. If you are not feeling well or are uncomfortable with participating in your field work or student teaching, please contact your Felician professor immediately.

SCHOOL OF NURSING
  1. Faculty will hold class virtually during the usual scheduled time, and will be on-line for the entire duration of their class time
  2. We are having a mandatory faculty meeting on Friday in a computer lab to make sure all faculty know to manage the nuances of holding their class virtually using Brightspace.
  3. All advising appointments will be done by phone, zoom etc.
  4. The NRSC will remain open for Health Assessment lab and Fundamentals of Nursing lab. The labs are 6 hours long. One half of the students will attend for the first 3 hours, and the other half will attend for the second three hours
  5. The two graduate Assistants will do tutoring from phone via Zoom or phone.
INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION SCIENCES (Computer Science and Cybersecurity)

March 25, 2020

Dear Members of the Institute for Information Sciences Learning Community,

While most messages about recent events begin with fear, I wish to begin this one with thanks.  The word I am hearing from faculty is that all of you have done an incredible job in making the transition to completely virtual learning, and the entire Felician community appreciates your efforts.  These are indeed challenging times, but I was confident going in that as a learning community we could do this together.

We have done the hard part of making a quick transition online.  The challenge before us is now that we are there, how do we work to improve?  Now that we are remote, how do we maintain ourselves as a community?  The Lodi cafeteria seems so far away.  I want, therefore, to try to re-establish ourselves as an online community until we are back in the Lodi cafeteria, and I am paying for the pizza!

To compensate for our not having physical spaces to congregate in, we have set up a Discord Server as our social space.  The available tutoring we had in Kirby Hall is now available in the Discord server at the same time.  You can use the Discord to ask for help from colleagues, advice on projects from the community; post questions you might have; etc.  It is a gathering space for all of us, faculty, staff, student, even administrators!  I would ask that you join our Discord server.  To do so, please complete the form at https://pitch_night_application.formstack.com/forms/discord_application.  Apologies that it cannot be a direct sign-up, but because of Federal Law, we have to ensure that those who belong are members of our community.

Second, since the Ockham lectures are cancelled, I would like to have some Zoom master classes during some evenings (yes, Netflix is bottomless, but eventually we need to try something different).  I spoke this evening with the person who has done the game sound tracks for multiple big name video games and got him to agree to a Zoom session one evening to discuss creating music scores for video games—when we have the date worked out, I will post an announcement inside the Discord server.  I have set up a channel #special-events and the first post is a question about how often you would like us to have events.

We want to continue a full Felician experience and ensure that you are part of a connected community.  We did great in the transition, now we need to keep it running.  That does not mean that there will not be additional challenges or bumps on the road, but we have shown our resilience in making this happen.  I thank and congratulate all of you, students, faculty, staff, for great work.

Please regularly check the Felician website for updated information.  Also, PLEASE be careful and stay healthy!  Not washing your hands properly could result in situations worse than having to write your senior project in COBOL!

As always, if I can be of assistance, you can always contact me—in fact, I am usually logged into the Discord server, so unless I am in a meeting or on a call, you can usually get a quick response.  I am copying the Institute for Information Sciences mission statement below, because we are making it happen and need to take pride.

All my best,

Bob

 

In addition to Brightspace and Zoom, we are running a Discord Server as a general discussion and support area.

  • For computers, go to https://discordapp.com/; the mobile version is available on the App Store and Playstore. For security reasons, we are keeping the site restricted, so you will need to complete a request for an invitation (which will only be sent to Felician email addresses) by completing the form at https://pitch_night_application.formstack.com/forms/discord_application.
  • The Tutoring normally available in the Kirby Hall computer labs will be available inside Discord; the hours are at the same times usually available in the Labs.

Since classes will not be in labs, if you need an IDE to work on your classes, we suggest https://repl.it/~ as it is free and supports multiple scripts and languages including PHP, Python and C++. For courses involving other languages, your professor will let you know what tools to use. If you need help choosing a tool for a given project, there is a #language channel in Discord where you can post questions and answers. For any tools or IDEs you choose to use, please ensure they use the version specified by your professor.

Student organizations are invited to create channels on the Discord server.

THE CENTER FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Will continue to provide support via email, telephone and Zoom:

Services for Students with Disabilities

Carolyn Mitchell Kehayan, MA, LDTC, Coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities

Dear faculty,

Please continue to provide extra time on online tests and or assignments for those students who have provided you with accommodations.
If you have any questions on how to extend time for a student (s), please see the ADA guidelines regarding access on Brightspace or contact The Center for Digital Design and Online Learning or Carolyn Kehayan at kehayanc@felician.edu.

Please also contact Carolyn with any other questions regarding students with disabilities.

Sylvia McGeary, PhD
Vice President for Academic Affairs
and Mission Integration

FELICIAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES NEW HOURS OF SERVICE AS OF 3/20/2020

Our doors may be closed but we’re still here! https://felician.libguides.com/libraries

  • Electronic self-service resources are available 24 hours a day/7 days a week.
  • Virtual Reference (WebChat) is available during the following hours:
    • Sunday: 4 pm – 8 pm
    • Monday – Thursday: 8:30 am – 8 pm
    • Friday: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
    • Saturday: 10 am – 4:00 pm
  • Virtual Reference appointments (via Zoom) can be scheduled.

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