Thank you for reading the following important updates and reminders.

Please consider helping students to understand their academic standing in your course by reporting all Midterm letter grades, not just those grades for students earning Ds and Fs. This will save time, especially at the end semester when students tend to complain about their grades and you are able to point to this official Midterm grade. Likewise, entering grades promptly into the ICON gradebook can help motivate some students to seek help or to study more.

Some of you have reported that students are planning to leave campus for Spring Break, even though this break has been officially canceled by the University of Iowa. This cancellation occurred to protect the health of the UI community, including students, their friends and families as well as UI faculty and staff.  Please remind students of the reasons Spring Break was canceled, especially before due dates and by mid-March while also reminding students of your absence policy and related consequences.  Please review the traditional CLAS absence policy, too, since this policy distinguishes between a shorter absence and a longer one: https://clas.uiowa.edu/faculty/student-attendance-and-absences. 

Students are strongly encouraged to submit the COVID self-report form if the student receives a positive test or has an official exposure, especially since this initiates contact- tracing while serving as official documentation needed for extending assignment deadlines or offering make-up exams (https://apps.its.uiowa.edu/forms/self-report). These reports are sent daily to each ICON course site (under MAUI tools) if a student in the course has submitted a form.

As we come to that time in the semester when high-stakes exams and other assessments occur, the following resources on the Keep Teaching site can be helpful:

                Administering High-Stakes Assessments

                Assessment Plans in Virtual Instruction (pdf)

                Academic Integrity with Online Assignments with Turn it in (video)

Training on creating quizzes and exams in ICON is also available and includes setting quiz options, using question groups to randomize question delivery to students, and providing students with additional time as needed for SDS accommodations: Quizzes and Exams in ICON (video).

Finally, if a student does make a mistake and commits academic misconduct in your class, report the student as quickly as possible.  Please use this form to report academic misconduct: online reporting form. In our experience, students do not cheat again after being reported.

Last but not least, changes to a course modality during Spring 2021 must be requested through workflow. A link to the workflow form appears in MAUI.

Thank you so much for your help and please let me know what questions you have. I am always happy to hear from you.