• HED Employee Benefit Summary (PDF)

• Volunteer to Translate with Translators without Borders
• Support well-deserved Military Troops through Soldiers Angels
• Be an online emotional support person at 7 Cups
• Help kids in need when you organize an online fundraiser for Operation Warm
• Make a global difference with the United Nations
• Lend your eyes to solve tasks for blind and low vision people. Visit Be My Eyes
• Identify New York Wildlife, map our galaxy or assist researchers in many other ways with Zooniverse
• Sew emotional support blankets for Binky Patrol
• Proofread ebooks for Project Gutenberg
• Answer texts from people in crisis using active listening and collaborative problem solving with Crisis Text Line
• Crochet or knit afghan squares that will help build blankets for both babies and adults. Send them to Warm Up America
• Record audiobooks for Librivox
• Transcribe historical documents for the Smithsonian
• Send a card, letter or note once a week to someone undergoing chemotherapy. Apply at Chemo Angels
• Share your voice and help drive innovation in voice technology through VocaliD
• Provide learning and encouragement to children around the world via Skype and the Granny Cloud website.
• Test, evaluate or develop elements of the National Park Service’s online presence.
• Raise money in a virtual world with The American Cancer Society and Second Life.
• Develop video games to help App to Succeed teach youth in need how to make good financial decisions.
• Train others in technology to help overcome poverty with Right Here at Home
• Help Harvard researchers learn the best ways to break down stereotypes by taking tests with Project Implicit
• Volunteer to be an Online Ambassador with Ark of Hope for Children
• Just Serve: Lists volunteer opportunities to help those in need and enhance the quality of life in the community.
• VolunteerMatch: Lists ways to support a broad range of causes, including education, the environment, homelessness and many more.
• Sew medical masks for the Navajo Nation

• HR Guidance Various Topics (PDF)
• Tips for Telecommuting (CBS Video)

Make sure you are getting your files off of your work computer ASAP, either onto a flash drive that you can take home, OneDrive, or some other way.

If you can, set up call-forwarding on your office phone to your cell or home phone. If you have an out of state number, please contact IT because there appears to be a challenge with out-of-state numbers.

We expect committees and department meetings to continue to operate as usual, with the same frequency and similar process. This means that documents will all need to be distributed digitally and may mean that for especially sensitive committees (SPC, Admissions, etc.), chairs should use Secure Mail or some other process to secure documents. (Teams is also a great place to house these documents securely and allow for collaboration on a committee or task force. Teams is quite secure, as long as only authorized and appropriate people are invited to the Team.)

We expect that the majority of meetings will still be held using Skype for Business. Please make sure that you have Skype for Business installed on your personal computer. If you are having problems access Skype meetings remotely, please contact IT.

• Deliverables from committees and task forces are still expected in a timely manner.
• Please make sure you check your email and home or cell phones often.

Talk to your course director if you want to run live sessions with the entire class, including any type of interactive teaching (CIS or BSC-like sessions), open Q&A sessions, or even a live lecture. We will be using Zoom Video Conferencing software for these sorts of events, which allows us to have 300 participants in any one session. The technology is not hard to use, but you will want to practice and be trained on it before you first use it. Your best source of help in learning Zoom is to contact your faculty colleagues, as IT is currently extremely busy.

Alternatively, faculty can pre-record a video lecture via voice-over PowerPoint, Camtasia, or other video and desktop capturing software. The pre-recorded video lectures can then be uploaded to Microsoft Stream and the link posted to MyVista.

Finally, we expect that many of our sessions for this term will simply be the sessions that were recorded last year. In fact, as DPCEs, we will assume that all “lecture-type” sessions will be whatever was recorded from last year and is currently posted to MediaSite. We will pull those links form last year and post them to Outlook. However, if you plan to have a Zoom session or a newly recorded video session, let us know and we will post accordingly to the appropriate Outlook Calendar.

Accessing Skype via Personal Smartphone or Laptop (PDF)

The process for making a session a ZOOM SESSION is as follows:

• Course Director informs DPCE that a certain session will be a LIVE ZOOM SESSION
• DPCE then labels the Outlook session as a LIVE ZOOM SESSION and adds the correct Zoom link to Outlook. (these Zoom links are the same links for every year 1 event and a different link for all year 2 events)
• ZOOM Recording: Unless told otherwise, IT is planning to log in as the account user at the beginning of each Zoom session in order to facilitate the recording of the session. They will then hand over control of the session to the presenter. The presenter will then have the ability to use video, share documents (PPT or other), whiteboard, etc.
• Once the session is completed, IT encodes the LIVE ZOOM SESSION into Mediasite format and it is uploaded to Mediasite.
• The DPCE will go to Mediasite, find the correct video, and copy the link to the Outlook calendar.

Assessment item authoring, exam assembling, and exam posting will continue as normal, and the Office of Testing will accomplish their tasks remotely. However, it will be imperative that we stay in contact with the Office of Testing so that exams and quizzes are assembled, proofed, and posted in a timely manner.

ExamSoft exams will be administered remotely and proctored remotely using Exam Monitor. More information is forthcoming from the Office of Testing about this process. PERs cannot be proctored remotely and have been canceled.

Course Directors are encouraged to create a Team for their course and add Class of 2022 CO and Class of 2022 UT or Class of 2023 CO and Class of 2023 UT to that Team. Faculty for each course will also need to be added by course directors.

Office hours then can be held within that Team with those students for individual faculty. These office hours can include bulletin boards like communications, texting back and forth that all students can observe, and audio or video conferencing. Please communicate with the students, faculty, and course directors on when these office hours will occur. We hope that each teaching faculty member will hold regular office hours, and Teams is probably the superior place for those to occur.

If you don’t feel comfortable creating a team on Microsoft teams, feel free to ask for help or offer office hours through the MyVista discussion board, at a minimum.

FEMA Resources: Crisis Counseling for Stress and Anxiety Related to Pandemic

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved four states, including Colorado and Utah, for development of crisis counseling programs for residents struggling with stress and anxiety as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Colorado and Utah

• 2-1-1 is a confidential and multilingual service connecting people to vital resources:
  • Call 2-11 or 866-760-6489
  • Text your ZIP CODE to 898-211

• The Crisis Counseling Assistance and Training Program is a program that assists individuals and communities in recovering from the psychological effects of natural and human caused disasters through community-based outreach and educational services. Call the disaster stress helpline at 800-985-5990 or text “TalkWithUs” to 66746.
• RVU Mental Health Resources

Colorado Crisis Services

Provides free, confidential, professional and immediate support on any mental health, substance use or emotional concerns, 24/7/365.

• 1-844-493-TALK (8255) or text TALK to 38255 to speak to a trained professional

Utah Mental Health Resources

• Intermountain Health offers a free hotline for mental health issues related to COVID-19 at 833-442-2211.
• Resources related to the COVID-19 pandemic: coronavirus.utah.gov/Mental-health/

For those who have been authorized to request Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies for departmental and/or employee needs, please ensure requests are in compliance with the RVU Reintegration Plan and specific Departmental/Program Reintegration Plan.

Please note these important points:

1. All PPE requests should go through the online Request Form located on our iNet. https://inet.rvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/forms/ppe-request-form/
2. The request form must be completed in its entirety and specific to the needs of the department.
3. PPE requests should be made for a 60-day time frame.
4. All PPE requests will be reviewed and compared to the departmental reintegration plan. Upon approval of the PPE request, the order will be filled by the facilities department and delivered/sent to the appropriate requester within 10 business days.
5. Any special individual requests for PPE not included in your Reintegration Plan should be forwarded to the campus HR representative.

Vaccination Requirement Policy (PDF)