Back to Designing Your Course

Contingency Planning for Instructors

Why?

Bad things happen! We might not want to think about it but there is the possibility that natural disasters, local technology failures, regional power outages, and other factors might influence your ability to deliver your course. You have worked hard to develop the course and now the students can't see the course and can't complete the necessary assignments.

You need a plan.

What to Do.

Be proactive! Provide information in your course and collect certain information from the students.

1. Have copies of your syllabus and course schedule available in a format that can be emailed to students.

   1. Good practice suggests you should keep a copy on your desktop computer, on portable media, and a copy at home.

2. Develop a contingency plan in case the normal delivery of the course is compromised in some way. 

   1. How will you communicate with students?

      1. Email outside of Blackboard
      2. Telephone
      3. Alternative web

   2. How will you deliver content?

      1. Email outside of Blackboard
      2. Fax
      3. Alternative web

   3. How will you deliver assignments and examinations?

      1. Email outside of Blackboard
      2. Fax
      3. Alternative web

3. Inform students of your contingency plan in your syllabus and/or in a prominent location on the course. We also suggest you define the situation (as best as possible) that will trigger your contingency plan. A reasonable plan is to assure students that you will attempt to contact them if your course will be unavailable more than 24 hours. During this contact point, you will inform them of where to go and what to do until normal services are restored. 

4. Collect phone numbers and email addresses from the students and keep these on your computer and in an alternative location. The safest plan would be to have two digital copies (one on your computer and one on portable media) and a print copy. If the Course Management System was down, if power was interupted for a long period of time, or other factors - you have a method to contact the students.

   1. Options

      1. Create an assignment using the assignment tool requiring students to submit all information early in the semester. These files can be downloaded in one single operation.

      2. Create instructions for a word processed document containing the pertinent information.

Think Multiple Methods.

We encourage you to think about multiple methods to provide content and assistance to students. You don't know what may happen to require you to implement some type of contingency plan. We suggest you think of alternative ways to continue a course: 1.) if power is out at the university or regionally for a long period of time, 2.) if the CMS is down for a long period of time, 3.) if all services and facilities on the Denton campus are unavailable for a long period of time, and 4.) if a regional outage or disaster affects a large number of your students.

A combination of methods provides you with the best chance to continue the course with minimal interruption. Dependence on an alternative web presence may prove useless in a major power outage but it may be a wonderful way to continue class because Blackboard is unavailable. Alternative email may also work well to deliver content and materials, unless power is unavailable. Fortunately, the telephone may still work during a power outage and provide a means to contact students to let them know what is expected.

We also encourage you to think about other delivery systems in case the course delivery system will be unavailable for a length of time. There are numerous Web 2.0 technologies that may be used to deliver content in an emergency. PBworks, Wetpaint, Blogger, SlideShare, Google Docs, Flickr, Windows Live SkyDrive and others are easily available (if you have power and if you have a way to contact students). 

Building Your Contingency Plan.

Our philosophy is to start with what you have. Over time you can become increasingly sophisticated in the delivery of content and material. Make sure you have versions of your syllabus and course schedule in a format that could be printed, faxed, and emailed. Have backup versions of the content in a format that can be manipulated (use your original source documents or copy the content using a word processor). Have digital versions of the content in multiple locations. Think through contacting the students and informing them how the course will continue and collect necessary contact information.

1. Copy syllabus and course schedule files to multiple locations.

2. Copy content (you can highlight and paste into a document) or organize your original source materials for retrieval.

3. Have a contact list with phone numbers.

Implementing your Plan. 

Disaster strikes and you are unable to use the CMS to deliver content (this could be an ice storm, an extended power outage, a tornado, loss of several servers, etc.). Work with the university to determine the extent of the down time. Once you know how long the system will be unavailable, you can make decisions. If the system will be unavailable for an extended period of time and this will impact your course - contact students. We suggest you contact students anyway to ease their frustration and to let them know that you are aware of the issue. Retrieve your course materials and go to alternative methods of delivery until the system is available. As long as you have a plan and a means to contact students, most issues can be handled in some manner.

To see an example of language that could be used with students, go to Example Contingency Plan to Provide to Students and/or If Technology Fails.pdf

Information on using Blackboard to contact all students is found on Contingency Planning - Class Suspension.

Back to Designing Your Course