Academic instruction

The processes for making decisions to adjust course modalities remain the same as last academic year.

Faculty will have the ability to temporarily adjust class modalities due to COVID-19 impact on in-person class attendance or changes in the pandemic situation. If a faculty member believes that a temporary move to fully online instruction better supports student learning, they must do the following:

• Consult with their department head to obtain approval.
• Communicate the temporary move to online instruction to the students with a clear start and end date.
• If a high isolation/quarantine rate persists after the designated end date of the temporary move to online instruction, the period may be extended with department head approval.

Department heads must do the following:
Track any approved temporary shifts to remote instruction on the reporting spreadsheet and provide the documentation to the Registrar’s Office at the end of the semester. The Registrar’s Office will need the course subject, course number, start and end date of temporary remote option, date of student communication, reason, approval department head name and approval date.

It is important to note that it would not be appropriate to declare the shift of an in-person class to fully online instruction for the entirety of the semester unless there are extenuating circumstances, such as a faculty member unable to teach in person. In those cases, dean and provost approval is required.

Students who wish to pursue their degrees from K-State by taking all online courses should visit with their academic advisors to discuss options.

As with any other illness, students will contact their instructors directly for modification of assignments, exams or other forms of classwork due to COVID-19-related illness, isolation or quarantine. The office(s) of student life on K-State campuses will no longer automatically verify COVID-19-related absences.

All faculty are required to provide academic assistance and adjustments for students who need to miss class due to COVID-19-related absences. Faculty who notice students with multiple COVID-19-related or any chronic absenteeism should ask those students to complete an absence verification form and/or contact the appropriate Office of Student Life about students of concern as noted below. These students may require more attention to navigate the semester.

• Manhattan campus: View the absence verification form and the student of concern form.
• Salina campus: View the absence verification form and student of concern form.
• Olathe campus: Contact Kimberly Rammacciotti at 913-307-7313 or kramacciotti@k-state.edu.

COVID-19 absences are not university excused absences due to the need to respond more quickly to the higher number of students expected to be impacted by the omicron variant and the shortened duration of isolation and quarantine protocols adopted by the CDC. The Office of Student Life will not verify each instance or occurrence. As they do with other illnesses, students will contact instructors directly for modification of assignments, exams or other forms of classwork due to COVID-19-related illness, isolation or quarantine throughout the semester.

Testing centers are distributed across campus and tend to focus on distinct populations. Given continued constrained resources, we ask faculty to help reduce demand for testing and proctoring in-person services by:

• Replacing high-stakes exams with alternative assessments, when possible. There are resources available to assist faculty in adjusting assessment measures.
• Administering exams through Canvas.
• Exploring a remote proctoring solution with the understanding that remote proctoring costs are the responsibility of the department/college.  Most colleges are using Examity for remote proctoring. Respondus Monitor is the other proctoring option and Respondus LockDown Browser offers Canvas Quiz security to detect unauthorized activities or honesty issues. Please contact the department head or associate dean for more information on remote proctoring services available.

We must comply with ADA regulations by providing testing accommodations to students who need them. Students may request these services through the Student Access Center, or SAC, and are encouraged to do so in a timely fashion. If the SAC is not able to administer a same day exam due to limited resources, faculty are asked to be understanding, flexible and assist the SAC in ensuring students receive accommodations.

Questions about the testing and proctoring centers on the Manhattan campus may be directed to Jeannie Brown Leonard at brownleonard@k-state.edu. For questions about the K-State Polytechnic Testing Center, contact profed@k-state.edu. For questions about K-State Online Testing or Examity, contact globaltesting@k-state.edu.