Some students have asked about approaches to managing attending classes remotely during the initial period of quarantine on campus. Specifically, students who share a room with a roommate have asked about how to best approach learning when both roommates have a class at the same time. Several options exist for students who have these schedule conflicts. Some students will plan to use noise-cancelling headphones while attending classes, while others have asked about alternative spaces that may be available. While we expect students to remain in their residences during the two-week quarantine, you may use lounges or study rooms in your residence, or sit outside your residence by yourself when these conflicts arise. We understand that this may be challenging during the first week of classes, we are hopeful that as campus opens up following the initial quarantine students will be able to manage these situations more easily.
Student Academic Resources has also put together some resources and tips for students specific to learning in a digital environment. We would like to highlight the recommendation that students pay attention to building a balanced schedule that includes no more than two Zoom lectures in one day. Be sure to be attentive to giving yourself breaks from sitting in front of a screen and build in time to move around.
Check out the Semester Planning Calendars that are available on the Student Academic Resources page!
DROP/ADD
Fall 2020 Drop/Add opens in WesPortal at 8:30am ET on Monday, August 24th and closes at 5:00pm ET on Friday, September 11th.
You must enroll in the University to participate in Drop/Add. Please do so even if you have holds. You can follow-up with the holds after you’ve enrolled.
Instruction Modes:
- Be mindful of the instruction mode of your classes. If you are a remote student, be sure your classes are either: Online, Hybrid with Remote Students, or In-Person with Remote Students.
Full-credit course limit:
The four-credit course limit cannot be raised in the first week of drop/add. This will be an option starting on the first day of classes, Monday, August 31st. A full-credit course is any course with 1.0 or higher credit, excluding private music lessons.
Time Conflicts:
Drop/add ignores time conflicts. If a student plans to consider two courses with overlapping times, they will need to touch base with both professors to confirm they can meet all commitments and expectations of both classes.
Browsing Courses during Drop/Add:
For Online Courses: Faculty may allow students to browse their remote courses.
- To do so, go to WesPortal > Courses > Drop/Add Course Access, then input the zoom or moodle link to your course.
- Students can see these links in their WesPortal > Courses > Drop/Add Course Access.
For In-Person Courses: Students should not attend in-person classes they are not registered for unless they have retained explicit permission from faculty during drop/add. This is due to strict requirements for Covid classroom capacity compliance.
One-week grace period for student attendance:
Normally, faculty may drop a student who does not attend the first class meeting. For fall 2020, EPC has revised this policy: “Any registered student who cannot participate in the first scheduled class meeting must contact the instructor (in advance, or as soon as possible thereafter) to explain the absence. After the first week of classes, faculty may drop any student who has not done so. Browsing for other classes is not an acceptable reason for students to miss any class in which they hope to remain enrolled.”
Auditing of in-person classes:
The reduced classroom capacity due to social distancing means that it may not be possible to allow students to audit in-person class meetings. Community auditors may only participate in a class remotely; they may not come to campus.
For Instructors Meeting in Classroom Space:
Classroom assignments are based on strict Covid-capacities. Do not overenroll a course beyond your listed enrollment capacity, unless you have explicitly confirmed you will still be within the mandated Covid-capacity. The Covid capacities are available in EMS.
Detailed information is available on the Registrar’s website.
Drop/Add for Fall 2020 will open one week before classes begin
Some faculty make course reading, viewing, and listening materials available to students through Library Course Reserves. All Fall 2020 reserves are electronic, accessible 24/7 on any device. In Moodle, click on the “Course Reserve” or the “Resource List” link to get to course reserve materials. For non-Moodle courses, click on the “Course Reserve” link on the library homepage (