Fall 2020 course delivery

Dear College of Health Sciences community,

Yesterday the university responded to concerns and offered clarification around terminology for Fall 2020 course delivery. 

We—and the university—have adapted three different course modalities for instruction:

• Distance Learning – Internet and Web-Based: Courses will be fully online. There will be no required face-to-face instruction.
• Distance Learning – Hybrid: Courses will deliver instruction through both online and in-person interaction.
• Distance Learning – Compressed Video: Courses will be completed through a live video broadcast to a designated remote location.

Many classes will involve a mixture of in-person instruction and some online, video or remote learning. In part, this is because we have a reduced capacity for classrooms to enforce physical distancing and keep our students and faculty safe. The result is that a lecture hall, for example, will have significantly reduced capacity to accommodate physical distancing. It’s important to note that for a number of years we have embraced online components which complement in-person instruction – streaming of videos, chat rooms, flipped classes and other tools to enhance learning.

When a student goes into the portal and sees a class is “distance learning,” it’s important not to assume that necessarily means completely online. It often means a class has a hybrid approach—where some portions are in-class instruction and some – like a traditional lecture or study session – may occur online. Within the portal you will see three terms: traditional, distance learning-hybrid; distance learning-internet. Both traditional and distance learning-hybrid have in-class instruction. Only the third category – internet – is completely online or in a remote context.

Under the direction of department chairs, College of Health Sciences academic faculty evaluated hundreds of course sections in our college for the Fall 2020 semester. More than half will be taught in a traditional fashion with only a small percentage being completely online. Thanks to the thoughtful and careful work of our faculty, 84 percent of our courses will have at least some form of face-to face instruction.

We appreciate the patience and understanding of our community as we navigate the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and look forward to welcoming students safely and smartly back to campus on Aug. 17.

Sincerely,

Scott Lephart

Dean of the UK College of Health Sciences