Dean's Community Message

June 23, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

Good afternoon. I hope you all had a chance to tune in to the virtual town halls yesterday that were focused on return to campus questions from employees and students. Most importantly, I hope you were able to have some of your questions answered. If you were not able to tune in, recordings of the events will be archived and available for viewing soon here. In the meantime, the University has released summaries of the town halls. The summary of the faculty and staff town hall can be found here, and the summary of the student town hall can be found here.

As the University and the College of Engineering continue to navigate our path forward, I know many of you may still have questions. Please continue to reach out to our response team at COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu with questions and concerns.

Today’s inspirational quote was submitted by Kavya Laalasa Karanam, graduate student in computer science and engineering:

“It always seems impossible until it is done.”
—Nelson Mandela

Here are today’s updates:

Town Hall on First-Year Seminars for FA20

The Leonhard Center and the Office for Digital Learning will facilitate a town hall on first-year seminars on Thursday, June 25, from 10:00–11:30 a.m. The primary goal of this town hall is to understand what information you need to make instructional decisions about your first-year seminars for FA20. Preregistration is required. For more information, contact Tom Litzinger (tal2@psu.edu).

Remote Teaching Tip #19 – Create quick videos to communicate with students

Create an informal two-minute explainer video to flesh out details of an assignment or post a quick video to clarify misconceptions about a class topic or assignment. Just as you can embed your Zoom recordings in Canvas Pages, you can also embed recordings in announcements, discussion forums, and assignments. The "embed Kaltura media" tool is available for all of these Canvas content types. Contact the Office for Digital Learning for assistance.

Please continue to email me your inspirational quotes. Penn State updates are available on the University’s coronavirus information site. You can connect with me on LinkedIn, and follow the college on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Be well!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering