2019-20 Annual Report
STUDENTS
Up 5% from FY19
COURSES
Total of 943 sections
STUDENT CREDIT HOURS
Up 10% from FY19
TOUCHPOINTS
The instructional design team logged a record year of interactions with faculty. Nearly 400 of these touchpoints took place between March and June of 2020.
COURSES CONVERTED
In March alone, the instructional design team helped instructors covert more than 1,000 courses from face-to-face to distance learning.
LEVEL UP
To support faculty moving to remote teaching during the pandemic, the UAF eCampus Design Team created Level Up: Foundations and Innovations in Online Learning in summer 2020. Level Up invited faculty to start where they were and level up their distance learning practice using student engagement, backwards and inclusive design, and video creation. With 25 hours of programming over the course of a single week in May, instructional designers supported 39 faculty from over 18 different departments across the university. Interest in the program was so high that the Design Team offered a second Level Up later in the summer, hosting over 20 more faculty for the second training.
Meet the Level Up team:
OPEN LABS AND DROP-IN SUPPORT
The UAF eCampus instructional design team offers daily open lab and drop-in support for faculty, instructors and TAs. Anyone teaching at UAF can get one-on-one assistance troubleshooting problems in Blackboard, Google Suite for Education, WordPress and other instructional tools. Instructional designers also provide consultation for incorporating teaching strategies and technology, as well as assist with developing curriculum, creating assessments, and so much more. During the peak of transitioning to online learning, eCampus hosted record numbers of open lab and drop-in support. Find Open Labs on the eCampus Faculty Development Calendar.

UAF culinary instructor Sean Walklin teaching students in the kitchen at Hutchison Center (left) and from home after COVID-19 forced campus to close (right).
TEACHING TIPS FROM INSTRUCTORS AS THEY ADAPTED
UAF eCampus produces weekly articles called Teaching Tips. These one-page tips cover best practices, pedagogy, tools, emerging ideas and more. With spring 2020 being an unprecedented semester, eCampus wanted to highlight unique faculty perspectives on how they adapted their teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of faculty wrote about their experiences, shared lessons learned and reflected on how COVID-19 may shape their future teaching practice.
Early reflections about what worked and what we learned by Jennifer Tilbury
Existing online courses not immune to COVID-19 changes by Sean Holland
Fostering engagement in online discussion by S. Ryan Oliver
Effective distance teaching through flexibility by Mike Koskey
Finding community and humor in a changed classroom by Zoe Marie Jones
STUDENT SUPPORT
The Student Support team at UAF eCampus created and shared tips for both new-to-online students and experienced online students who were now juggling a lot more than they originally planned.
Read and download Adjusting Your Habits for Success in Distance Classes (PDF)
Access the Student Technology Toolkit
UAF eCampus Advisor Brighton Brooks and others went on to adapt these resources for virtual live and recorded Zoom sessions for fall 2020 students. Click this image and use passcode 65k4kr=# to watch a recorded Intro to Blackboard session.

Kendell Newman Sadiik, UAF eCampus faculty development manager, epitomizes the extra weight many of us have been carrying this year.

Owen Guthrie, UAF eCampus Executive Director, gets an unexpected visitor in his new home office.

Jennifer Moss, UAF eCampus instructional designer and adjunct, created some no-look sketches during Zoom meetings. “No-look or blind-contour drawings are an exercise in drawing without looking at the paper,” she said. “They rarely turn out to look very realistic and are meant to capture the essence.” You can find more of her sketches and commentary on Instagram @jennifermossart.

Karina Gonzales-Smith, UAF eCampus faculty services coordinator, still gets dressed for work every day (so does her dog, Sadie. Note the hat!).

When the weather allows, Jenn Pedersen, UAF eCampus course and program manager, works from her back porch.

Sean Holland, an instructional designer and instructor within the School of Education, is joined by his daughters on a video call.

Scooter likes to hover over Shayla Sackinger, UAF eCampus graphic designer and student worker, while she works and attends virtual meetings.

After her son caught a 100-pound halibut in Valdez, Jennifer Young, UAF eCampus finance officer, made butter-seared halibut over pesto angel hair for lunch.

Bonnie is really enjoying having Jessica Armstrong, UAF eCampus admissions counselor, home during the day — except when Zoom calls interrupt her nap time.