Message from the Principal regarding fall classes

To the King’s community,

 

I am reaching out to you today to provide information on how we are planning to deliver courses, programs and services for fall 2020. We have decided to move ahead with a blended approach of online and in-person methods, with physical distancing. This decision is being made with the safety of our students, faculty and staff as our primary concern. The intent of this approach is to give the King’s community the most flexibility in preparing for the fall. All of our actions continue to be informed by the ongoing guidelines from public health and government authorities.

 

This approach will help ensure the continuation of the high quality of education at King’s, while connecting students with King’s faculty and peers through both remote learning and in-person instruction as COVID-19 regulations permit. Students will be able to make informed choices about the kinds of courses they wish to take, whether fully online, or a blended approach that allows for some in-person instruction within physical distancing guidelines and some online instruction. We can offer these choices due to our small class sizes, and because we are taking steps to physically change our campus layout to protect the community. 

 

The King’s definition of blended learning is a mix of both remote and in-person teaching as conditions permit (live lectures with set times for face-to-face classes, some recorded lectures, posting written documents, podcasts, videos, PowerPoint slides, etc.) while an online course would include exclusively online delivery (e.g., lecture material is posted via a recorded lecture, written documents, or PowerPoint slides, podcasts, video clips, etc.).

 

This is going to be a King’s-specific solution which will allow us to comply with provincial and local health regulations while at the same time providing you with a connection to your community of peers. 

 

The King’s campus will be physically different as we reduce and manage the density of people on campus and within our residences. This will include physical distancing across campus. Many of our services will also be available online as our staff have demonstrated their ability to continue to deliver student and staff services virtually over the past few months. Planning for on-campus service delivery is ongoing given the fluidity of the pandemic.