University of Utah, Weber State to offer just digital courses for summer terms

University of Utah, Weber State to offer just digital courses for summer terms

(Jordan Allred, KSL, File)


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

OGDEN — With Utah colleges and universities already using distance learning for the remainder of the spring term, the University of Utah and Weber State University are planning summer term, when both will continue to offer classes digitally only.

“Due to the evolving COVID-19 situation, ALL summer courses this year will be shifting online. This includes first and second session, semester-long summer courses, and continuing education courses,” according to a tweet from the U.

Weber State University will offer summer classes in two formats: traditional online classes as well as courses where classes will meet at specific times using videoconferencing tools.

Vice President of Student Affairs Brett Perozzi said both approaches allow for deep learning, although each has strengths and drawbacks.

“I encourage students to reach out to their faculty if they have questions or concerns about these formats. This is an unprecedented time, but I’m impressed with the continued flexibility, resilience and grace our students and faculty have shown through it all,” Perozzi said.

In response to social distance recommendations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Weber State faculty have spent the last two weeks transitioning its face-to-face campus to an online-learning institution.

RC Callahan, director of WSU Online, said the university was prepared to offer online services to every faculty member prior to the outbreak of novel coronavirus.

Related:

“Each semester, we provide a space in our online instruction tool called Canvas, so faculty members can create an online course if they choose to do so. This emergency certainly helped us test our capacity to fully use the tools we already had in place,” Callahan said.

While classes were suspended from March 13-17, an information session was offered to faculty members, first in person, and then through a Zoom phone call to provide them with additional help to move their instruction online. The discussions included Canvas navigation, using Google Meet and how to create and upload video lectures.

In addition, a team of faculty coaches was formed to provide another layer of support and instruction.

“A pandemic is nothing to be celebrated, but if I’m truthful, I’m thrilled that our amazing faculty are exploring innovative ways to teach online,” Callahan said.

English instructor Becky Marchant said the move online was made easier because of the tools WSU Online had provided prior to the pandemic that shuttered campuses.


A pandemic is nothing to be celebrated, but if I’m truthful, I’m thrilled that our amazing faculty are exploring innovative ways to teach online.

–RC Callahan, director of WSU Online


“During the current health crisis, WSU Online has been called on to provide unprecedented levels of help and has truly come through for the WSU community,” Marchant said in a press release.

Communication professor Colleen Packer, who directs the Teaching & Learning Forum, called for help from the WSU Online team the minute she learned about classes moving online.

“I hated to call because I knew they were swamped. But they worked all weekend. Mike Mitchell, an instructional designer, sat with me in the Do It Yourself Lab on Saturday and taught me how to do a narrated PowerPoint. There’s no way this would have happened if he hadn’t been able to work with me,” Packer said in a statement.

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahEducationCoronavirus
Marjorie Cortez

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast