There have not been any confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus on campus yet, but UMKC officials are taking all the necessary precautions in the event of a campus-wide pandemic.
On Sept. 9 and 10, the Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching (FaCET) held H1N1 Preparedness Workshops.
The purpose was to teach faculty and staff how to continue class even if students contract the virus and cannot physically be in the classroom.
The workshops were facilitated by Erica Schurter, academic liaison for Instructional Technology Services, and Marilyn Dean, software support analyst for Information Access.
"The products that I'm going to teach are really considered distance learning products, but they can be used in all sorts of ways and one of the ways is in emergency preparedness," Dean said.
Dean's tutorial featured Wimba Classroom, a product that goes beyond the abilities of Blackboard to create a virtual learning environment.
"Wimba Classroom is the robust distance learning product where you can interact with your students through cameras, through text messaging, through showing PowerPoint [presentations] to them and discussing all of this information," she said.
Using Wimba, professors can choose to record their lectures or deliver them live via webcam.
Students either download the lectures or participate live from the comforts of home.
This is especially helpful in the event that students are forced into quarantine because of an influenza-like illness.
For faculty and staff who don't want to use Wimba, Schurter showed how Blackboard can be used in place of the classroom.
"If you happened to have to step out of the classroom and start teaching online," Schurter said, "the four main goals are to post content to the students, communicate with the students, meet with your students and assess your students."
Schurter showed how to achieve these goals through Blackboard, using features like the course content folder, discussion boards and assignment tools.
Training is still available to faculty who were not able to attend the sessions. To schedule an individual appointment, call Joy Harris at 816-235-1299.
tallen@unews.com
