Dean's Community Message

August 11, 2020

Dear College of Engineering Community,

Today’s inspirational quote was submitted by Andrea Ragonese, assistant professor in SEDTAPP:

“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
—Phil Collins

Yesterday, the college hosted a virtual town hall for our engineering staff. Thank you to the 325 staff members who joined this discussion on the community’s questions and concerns surrounding the return to campus. You can view a recording of the staff town hall here. We also hosted a faculty town hall on July 1, with 239 attendees, and the recording is available here.

I want to reiterate how important these town halls are for the college, especially as we move closer to the start of the semester. We take our community’s feedback very seriously, and we look for every opportunity to listen to your questions and concerns. Please continue to reach out to us at L-COE_CORONA_CRISIS_TEAM@engr.psu.edu.

Here are today’s updates:

Guidelines and Resources for Returning to On-Campus Work

Penn State Human Resources released a Back to State Booklet that contains various guidelines and resources that relate to the return to on-campus work. This guide can be found here.</

COE Faculty Quickstart for Fall 2020

As we prepare for the fall semester, the Leonhard Center and the Office for Digital Learning are providing the following resources for faculty and graduate students to get ready to teach:

  • Classroom Technology Walk-through
    This webinar will demonstrate the classroom technology available, cover best practices for using the classroom computer or your own device for lectures, address a variety of ways to capture audio, and discuss options for whiteboarding hardware and software. The session will be broadcast from 102 Leonhard Building on Tuesday, Aug. 18, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. You may choose to attend in-person (first come, first served, up to COVID limits) or online via Zoom. Registration is required.
  • Quickstart Guides
    We’ve produced a series of one-page Quickstart Guides with tips on the topics covered in the summer series workshops: Engaging your Students, Building Community, Teamwork and Collaboration, Assessments, and Remote Labs. These guides will be sent to all faculty who attended the workshops and will also be available to download from the Office for Digital Learning site.
  • Quickstart Consultations
    Staff from the Office for Digital Learning will be available Monday through Friday for faculty consultations via Zoom from 11:00 a.m. to noon. Other times are available upon request.

Teaching Tip #33 - Support from students for classroom teaching

If you are teaching in a classroom this fall, you can enlist students in your course for basic on-site technical support and troubleshooting. College of Engineering IT and the Office for Digital Learning will host training sessions for students over the next several weeks. If you anticipate the need for technical support, contact your students this week to ask for volunteers. Faculty should send this sign up form to students in their course who volunteer to assist.

Take care!

Justin Schwartz
Harold and Inge Marcus Dean, College of Engineering