Emergency Preparedness for Academic Continuity

In the event of an emergency, it may be necessary for USF to suspend normal operations. During this time, USF may opt to continue delivery of instruction through methods that include but are not limited to: Blackboard, Elluminate, Skype, and email messaging and/or an alternate schedule. It’s the responsibility of the student to monitor Blackboard site for each class for course specific communication, and the main USF, College, and department websites, emails, and MoBull messages for important general information.

  • Faculty and Student Training in Electronic Course Delivery
    USF is building sufficient hardware, software, and support capability to promote “online” delivery of a majority of courses using Blackboard and Elluminate. E-Campus at USF has been offering instructor training at all college locations as well as at the main library on how to use Blackboard and Elluminate. “ Registration for the upcoming training sessions is available at http://c21te.usf.edu/workshops/#acadcont.

    USF E-Campus in collaboration with Information Technology is developing a web-based modular tutorial for faculty and students on ‘how to use Blackboard and Elluminate’ for delivery and receipt of online course instruction. The tutorial will be available for USF faculty and students by the end of November 2009.

  • Actions being taken by Chair/Director of each academic department and programs

    1. Develop a clear “Emergency Communication Strategy” with faculty and staff within the department. Prepare a ‘one-page reference document complete with communication lines, phone numbers, and email addresses’ and share with faculty and staff. Place the document on the departmental web site for easy access.  

    2. Notify faculty of the need to inform Chair/Director of any potential absence due to illness as early as possible

    3. Build an inventory of courses with notes on how those classes will be continued during a campus closure, those personnel qualified to teach the classes, and what preparations are needed.  A spreadsheet format is provided.

    4. Build an inventory of courses that may be infeasible to deliver online. A spreadsheet format is provided. 

    5. Put together a team of faculty to examine the inventory spreadsheets (prepared in Steps 3 and 4).

    6. Share the inventory spreadsheets with all faculty and staff, and maintain copies of the spreadsheet with the College Dean’s Office.

  • Action being taken by the College Deans and Heads of academic support units

    1. Define the critical services that must be maintained in your College/Unit? Develop a clear and concise list. The level of service may vary depending on the level of pandemic severity resulting in a closure from two weeks to six weeks.

    2. For each of the key services:

      1. Who are the key service personnel to maintain this service?

      2. What are the cross-training needs for those key personnel?

      3. What are the communication needs within and outside this group? Develop a diagram with communication lines and phone/email information for the key personnel.

      4. What communication facilities will be required by this group to function from home?

      5. What materials and supplies will the key personnel group need?

      6. What are the troubleshooting strategies within the group?

      7. Which other critical functional areas will this group need to coordinate with or depend on?

      8. What are the HR and finance issues?

    3. What are the impacts of dormancy of noncritical services for a prolonged period of time?

    4. How will the College/Unit restore all its critical and noncritical services at the end of a pandemic period?