On this page you will find information which you can use in your communication towards students. You can use Microsoft Teams to get in touch with students. Also we would like to stretch out that you inform your students as soon as possible about the organization of the programme including the form off testing.
- Exchange and international students
How to inform exchange and international students about the way in which the education is organised at the UT due to the corona situation and how to adequately inform students who are unable to come to the UT, or cannot come on time, about the extent to which they are accommodated in online education?
Guidelines
- Communicate as soon as possible to prospective international students who are unable to come to the UT, or cannot come on time, due to the corona situation what they can expect of the programme. Offer tailor-made solutions if possible.
- Some international students are in doubt whether it is worth paying money for an education abroad if most parts of the programme will be online. Communicate to those students that the UT strives for as much contact time on campus as is possible within Covid-19 government guidelines: ‘on campus if possible, online because it is possible.’
- Programmes which have the special feature internationalisation might have a problem when international students are missing in a whole cohort of students. This endangers achieving the learning outcomes related to internationalisation. Make an extra effort to make it possible for international students to come here. Also think of alternative means for achieving these learning outcomes when the international students do not come.
- For some programmes, exchange is important while travel is difficult now. Enable exchange students to follow courses online at another university (outgoing exchange) or students following online courses at UT (incoming exchange). Also consider collaboration with ECIU and ISP partners.
- Where to direct students for more information?
To help the students, the best thing to do is to direct them to the person who knows most about certain subjects. Here you will find a list which you can use to refer your students.
- Medical care: Campus doctor or own GP
- Insurance: Student Services via studentservices@utwente.nl
- Mental health / Well being: Study Advisor or Student Affairs Coaching & Counselling. (+31 53 489 2035).
- Financial Matters: Study Advisor
- Social contacts / online communities: via website/social media of associations
- Student Housing: Housing provider (ITC-hotel, Stadsweide, De Veste, Camelot)
- Question about the study programme: Study Advisor
- Information about the schedule: Canvas or TimeEdit
- Study delay and opportunities or regulations: Study Advisor
- Communication via Canvas: tips and tricks
Following experiences we have some tips to improve communication with students via Canvas:
- Use announcements instead of email when you approach all students. By doing so both students and support staff in the module are able to re-read information via Canvas-page
- If you are in a module, mention the module part in the subject of your announcement. I.e. [Dynamics] …
- It is very helpful for both students and support staff to have an overview of planning of classes and info on recording of classes. Some students have to deal with bad internet, sub-optimal housing situation and/or are in different time zones. To know whether a class is recorded or not can help to cope with this situation in a better way
- It is very helpful for students and support staff if you align info in TimeEdit (timetable.utwente.nl) with info in Canvas (or have no info in TimeEdit).
- Students abroad
STUDENTS IN ODA COUNTRIES: INTERNET/BANDWIDTH QUALITY, ETC.
By making (non-interactive) online teaching available not only ‘live’ but as a download as well, students in other time zones and with poor connections can be guaranteed to follow the teaching offline at a later moment. Examples of effective forms of online teaching that can be made available offline are available on the TELT website.
DIFFERENT TIME ZONES
The time zones range from -8 to +10. It is therefore not feasible and realistic to offer education for everyone during the day. For non-interactive online education, this can be solved by downloading the form of education or making it available offline in some other way (examples are available on the TELT website). Default is the time zone in the Netherlands (GMT+1). In the case of interactive, live online education, it is important for the instructor though, to be aware that there are students in different time zones.
SPECIFIC SITUATIONS AT HOME (AVAILABILITY OF STUDY PLACE, ICT FACILITIES, CHILDREN, POSSIBLE CARE FOR SICK FAMILY MEMBERS, ETC.)
Teachers are asked to refer students who, due to specific situations at home, are unable to study optimally to the study advisor. The study advisor can advise and also assess whether the student is eligible for support in special circumstances.
Not all media channels are available in all countries or access to UT student email is limited. Teachers are asked to keep an eye on whether the media channel used is accessible to students abroad. If this is not the case, an alternative or individual solution can be considered. Forwarding UT e-mails to another address could be a quick solution.