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Create a Plan

Academic continuity planning begins with asking yourself questions about the preparedness of you, your students and your course for an emergency scenario.

Templates and Example Plans

Several ready-to-use templates and example plans created by NC State instructors are available to help get you started.

Communicate with Students

As you create your plan, use the questions below to think about how you will address continuity for each of the teaching activities in your courses.

  • When will you communicate with students and how often?
  • What tool (or tools) will you use to communicate with students and how will you use it (or them)?
  • What will your initial communication to students look like?
  • How is course continuity addressed in your syllabus?

Distribute Course Materials and Readings

  • What course materials are likely to be affected (schedules, syllabus, etc.)?
  • How will you make students aware of changes in course materials and readings?
  • What tools will you use to distribute this content?

Deliver Lectures

  • Which lectures in your course will be affected during a crisis?
  • How will you deliver these lectures if you cannot meet face-to-face?
  • What is your plan for course continuity if you are unable to teach your course for any reason?

Run Lab Activities

  • Will lab activities in your course be affected?
  • If so, how will you alter each of these activities to achieve your learning outcomes?

Foster Communication and Collaboration Among Students

  • How will you foster collaboration in your course over time?
  • How will you foster student-to-student communication?
  • How will you make students accountable for group work done at a distance?

Collect Assignments

  • What types of files will students be required to submit?
  • How will you collect assignments?
  • What accommodations may some students need for assignments?

Assess Student Learning

  • What exams and other assessments will be affected?
  • How will you deliver and collect responses to those exams?
  • Which exams will need to be converted to projects or papers?

Templates and Example Plans

We’ve provided fillable Course Continuity Plan templates in multiple formats and shared example plans created by NC State instructors.

For more information and suggestions, contact the Office for Faculty Excellence or DELTA’s faculty help desk at learntech@ncsu.edu or (919) 513-7094.

Some “Keep Teaching” content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License by the Trustees of Indiana University.