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UF Recommends Professors Move Their Courses Online As Coronavirus Spreads

Spohpatuf
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Wikimedia Commons

The University of Florida has decided it’s time to start moving to virtual teaching as COVID-19 spreads in Florida.

UF Provost Joe Glover sent a memo to academic deans Monday recommending that instructors move their courses from face-to-face delivery to online, effective immediately, wherever possible.

While online teaching isn’t mandatory, the university said on its website: “There is a strong probability that it will become a requirement before the end of the spring semester, and so instructors are encouraged to transition now.”

The university said instructors are responsible for notifying their students in advance about the shift to the online format and to communicate regularly with them about expectations surrounding assignments, exams and other issues.

Related

For now, UF is planning its summer session as originally scheduled, but warned circumstances could require those classes to be delivered online as well.

To date, there have been no documented cases of the coronavirus in Alachua County, which is where UF's main campus is located. As of Tuesday morning, there were 20 positive cases of COVID-19 across Florida. Two Florida residents have died due to the virus. 

Bill Bortzfield can be reached at bbortzfield@wjct.org, 904-358-6349 or on Twitter at @BortzInJax.

Photo used under Creative Commons license.

Bill joined WJCT News in September of 2017 from The Florida Times-Union, where he served in a variety of multimedia journalism positions.