President Feridun Hamdullahpur meets with members of the Plant Operations night shift at the penultimate mid-cycle review consultation session Tuesday, held in the Festival Room at South Campus Hall. Fittingly, the event got underway at 10:00 p.m. There is one remaining consultation session for faculty and staff on Monday, December 5 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. in the Village 1 Great Hall.

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Get ready to LEARN

As previously reported in the Daily Bulletin, the university's current course management system, UW-ACE, is being replaced with software from University of Waterloo spinoff company Desire2Learn called Waterloo LEARN. Andrea Chappell, director of the Instructional Technologies and Multimedia Services unit in Information Systems and Technology, has provided information about the current state of the transition.

"All courses will run in Waterloo LEARN, the Desire2Learn system, starting January 2012," Chappell writes. "All on-campus course instructors should contact their CTE Faculty Liaison or the Learn Help staff members (learnhelp@ uwaterloo.ca) to request and discuss the move of your course, if you have not already done so.

"Extended Learning will migrate fully online courses and provide training sessions for online instructors. If you have questions regarding a fully online course, please contact extendedlearning.help@ uwaterloo.ca"

Course instructors have a couple of options - they can start from a clean slate or have content from existing UW-ACE courses converted to Waterloo LEARN. Chappell notes that, as with UW-ACE, courses on LEARN are not automatically created and must be requested. Instructors who wish to have their courses converted should contact their Liaison as soon as possible, and no later than December 16. Conversions can take up to a week to complete. "Most materials convert well but fixes to content may be needed," Chappell explains. "Information Systems and Technology (IST) has hired a contract employee to help fix conversion problems, but time and resources are limited so please get started as soon as possible."

For instructors who prefer to start fresh, they need to request that a new course shell be created in LEARN as soon as possible, and no later than December 21. "Requests after that time cannot be guaranteed to be dealt with before the University closes."

Timing is everything, Chappell's memo notes: "The university closes 24 Dec. 2011 - 2 Jan. 2012, inclusive, and only limited technical support through the learnhelp@ uwaterloo.ca email is available. An IST staff member will check email each day and respond to request that can be accommodated at home during the closure."

There is a wealth of training opportunities available. The "Getting Started in Desire2Learn" introductory training sessions have been running each week since September 7, and will continue almost until the university closes, with the final session on Monday, December 19. "Attending a training session is highly recommended," writes Chappell. Drop-in sessions for LEARN are held each week in EV1 242 staffed by liaisons from CTE, to answer questions from those beginning to navigate the D2L platform.

UW-ACE is not immediately disappearing come January 2. "Instructors will continue to have access to UW-ACE courses until the start of May 2012," writes Chappell. "Past course contents will be converted so that those materials can be loaded into LEARN," meaning that, as with UW-ACE, instructors will continue to have access to past courses in the system. "Students will not have access to UW-ACE after the end of 2011, except where normal course extensions in January are requested (as with current practice)," Chappell concludes.

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A word about storm closing procedures

It's the time of year when many of us start wondering where we stashed the snow shovel, the ice scraper, and, just to be on the safe side, the tiny marshmallows for hot chocolate. It's also time to review the university's weather and emergency closing guidelines.

Says the guideline document: "UW (and its Federated University and Affiliated Colleges) will "close" because of severe weather when normal operation would post a significant danger to students, staff and faculty, or would prevent large numbers of them from coming to campus or returning safely to their homes. Such a decision will be made by the Provost in consultation with as many of the following as can be reached: The Director of Police & Parking Services, Director of Communications & Public Affairs, Director of Custodial & Grounds Services."

The guidelines also take satellite campuses into account, noting that the decision to close will be taken by the administrator responsible for the activity, depending on, among other things, local conditions in that area.

“Notice of a campus closing will be posted on UW's homepage, normally by 7:00 a.m., remaining in effect until 7:00 a.m. or later the next day. Radio stations that can be expected to carry announcements include CKGL (570 AM), CKKW (1090 AM), CHYM (96.7 FM) and KOOL-FM (105.3 FM).

“‘Closed’ means: classes are not held; meetings and other scheduled events are cancelled; scheduled examinations are cancelled, to be rescheduled; deadlines for assignments and other submissions are postponed until the same hour on the next business day on which UW is not 'closed’; staff, other than those providing 'essential services,’ are not expected to be at work, but are paid for a normal day.

It is worth noting that since October 2009, the university has made its own decisions about storm closing this year, rather than always following the lead of the local public school board.

“A decision to 'close’ will be conveyed by the Provost to the Director of Communications & Public Affairs, who will arrange to: post details on UW's homepage, amend UW's automated telephone greeting, and notify local radio stations as necessary. The Provost, with assistance from C&PA, or others as required, will notify Executive Council, the Faculty and Staff Association Presidents and the student Presidents (Federation of Students, Graduate Student Association) who, in turn, will notify others under their jurisdiction. In such circumstances, individuals are to consult UW's homepage, tune in to a local radio station or call UW's Infoline (1-866-470-0910) to learn whether UW is closed.”

When the university does not close in inclement weather, "faculty, staff and students are reminded that they are responsible for determining when weather conditions make their travel unsafe and should consider public transportation because it may well be the safest option and cleared parking spaces may be in short supply."

None of this appears to affect the heroic people of the Turnkey Desk in the Student Life Centre, which has operated almost continuously since 1968.

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Notes as December gets underway

Voting is now underway for the Mathematics Society elections to Council. The election period began today and continues Friday via online ballot.

Early adopters of the web content management system (WCMS) will be sharing their experiences about the migration of their websites into the WCMS at a "WCMS Pilot Experiences and Next Steps" seminar this Friday from 9:00 to 9:45 a.m. in DC 1304. Megan Saunders from Housing and Residences and Donald Duff-McCracken of the Faculty of Environment will be talking about the process of migrating their sites into the WCMS; about what went smoothly and what challenges were faced; and about working with the WCMS team, whose members will be at the seminar to answer any questions that may arise about training, support, and future migration plans.

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