Advance College Project

Dear ACP Instructors and Partner School Contacts,

As you may have heard, IU is requiring all students, staff, and faculty to be fully immunized with a COVID vaccine before returning to campuses this coming Fall.

We have checked and the following are exempt from this requirement:

ACP students (Note: If an ACP student is ALSO taking courses in person on an IU campus, they will be required to be fully immunized.)

ACP Instructors (including those who are enrolled in IU online graduate courses)

Policies concerning visitors to IU campuses this Fall are still being developed.  We at ACP will be holding all of our site visits, professional development days and meetings virtually this fall semester.  After 1 January 2022, we plan for a return to in person mode, unless there are unforeseeable circumstances.

For the latest IU COVID policies and FAQs, please go to the following site:  https://www.iu.edu/covid/faq/index.html  

As you are currently or have just finished up your academic year, I want to again thank you all for all that you have done during this truly unprecedented time.  I am proud of you and what your students have achieved.

Wishing you all a most pleasant summer ahead,

Troy Byler
Director, Advance College Project (ACP)            

Hello ACP School Contacts and Instructors,

I wanted to keep you up to date with any new policy changes that would have an impact on your students.  The IU Bloomington Faculty Council just amended the policy for course withdraws.  Usually, after a certain date, a student can receive a grade of W only if she/he has a passing grade.  This is no longer in effect during semesters under COVID.  See the full policy below.  This means that your students can withdraw from the course up until the final exam date, no matter what their current grade is in the ACP IU course (except for misconduct – see 3. below).  Although 1.a. below may not pertain directly to your high school students, they should be made aware of the impact of the decision to withdraw from a course. 

Although this policy is from the Bloomington campus, we will be applying it to all of our ACP students and this includes all classes that enrolled in fall 2020: trimester, semester, and yearlong classes.  We will soon share this new policy with all of your students and how to request it, if needed.

I hope that all of your students will succeed in accomplishing the learning outcomes in their ACP courses for IU credit, but for those who may be struggling under the current conditions, I hope that this policy will alleviate some of the worry and stress in these current times, and maybe by knowing that this is available, they may do well enough not to have to withdraw.

Here is the new policy as found at this URL: https://vpfaa.indiana.edu/policies/bl-aca-h32-grades-withdrawl/index.html

Extending the Auto-W Deadline during COVID

1. For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IU Bloomington Campus shall extend the auto-W deadline for withdrawal from individual courses to the close of business on the last Friday immediately preceding the scheduled final examination for that course. For the purpose of administering this provision, the Provost shall determine when the pandemic has ended. Students shall have until the end of the semester in which such a declaration by the Provost is made to exercise the allowances of this policy.
   1. Students are strongly encouraged to meet with an academic advisor or OIS staff member before initiating such requests. The consultation will ensure that students are aware of the implications of the late withdrawal with regard to TTD, prerequisites/sequencing, SAP, scholarship eligibility, visa eligibility and that special populations (international students, student athletes, etc.) consult with appropriate offices before initiating the drop.
2. Students shall be informed of this policy electronically once a semester for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Consistent with existing policy, students are not eligible to receive a W grade in any course in which the sanction for academic misconduct is an F in the course.
4. The Extended Auto-W Deadline is effective starting the first day of classes of the Fall 2020 semester.

As always, I wish you and your students continued success.

Sincerely,

Troy

Greetings ACP Instructors and Partner Schools,

Whether you have been busy tidying up from last semester or are preparing for this coming fall, I hope that all of you can take some time off this summer to decompress and recharge.  Below are two sections, “Instructors” and “Administrative Contacts”.  We are including both in this one email so you all can benefit from knowing the information being shared.  Please read both sections.  We all need to communicate as openly as possible in order to best prepare for the challenges ahead and insure the success of our high school students.

Instructors

We are finding out from you what the fall semester is bringing and when it will be starting, and are receiving questions concerning allowable modalities and attendance policies as you are working on your syllabi.  The word from the IU Bloomington Provost is that S/F grades will no longer be available for challenges due to the pandemic, but there will still need to be flexibility as to modality and therefore attendance.  I have asked our ACP faculty liaisons to provide us and you the information as to what the on campus courses will look like, and what tools and policies will be available to help all of our students achieve the course outcomes no matter the modality.  We have no single over-arching attendance policy for our courses, since it is dependent on the course requirements.  Therefore, it is necessary to check with the specific liaison for the expectations of their department and any restrictions based on the modality (in-person, online, and whether or not asynchronous delivery is an option).

We are also moving towards a different approach with regards to the collection and review of the ACP course syllabi from our ACP instructors.  In the past, our office has created a Canvas page for each of our courses and have guided the ACP instructors to upload their syllabi before the beginning of each semester.  We have then reviewed the syllabi, to make sure that the required information is there and that it looks on par with the campus syllabi.  Since much of this information is content based, our office has had to correspond with the liaisons in order to check if the differences are in line with the expectations.  This could be achieved more efficiently and effectively if this were to be done directly by the liaisons.  We are currently making this switch.  The instructors should be contacted soon by the liaisons in order to guide them on the collection of the syllabi.  We are looking at a deadline of 31 July.

As many of you already know, we have also created an ACP Instructor Canvas site that contains many of the policies, FAQs, instructional tools, and timelines for your reference.  We will continue to add and update this site with new tools and policies.  This is also in attempts to help get you accustomed to periodically checking your IU email, since the announcements as to new updates and tools will be made from the site and will be sending notifications to your IU email, not your school email addresses.  We will be investigating how to get our school administrative contacts, who do not have IU IT accounts and usernames, invited to the site as well.

We are putting the finishing touches on a new supportive tool to assist you and your students in creating the IU IT accounts.  Assignment zero, or #A0, will be a clear, step-by-step instructions (ppt and handouts) for the instructors and students to be successful in getting quick access to their IU usernames in preparation for registration.  Remember, ALL students in the ACP courses, not just those taking the course for IU credit, must get an IU IT account and username in order to be able to access the course materials.   

ACP Administrative Contacts:

Please note: one important ACP policy that will remain in place throughout this academic year is that the ACP instructor for the course has to be the one administering the course content – no third party is allowed to take over an ACP course.  As in the past, if an ACP instructor becomes ill or is unable to continue to administer a course, contact the ACP office immediately so we can work together to find options available.   

Lastly, we are aware that given the financial challenges that many families find themselves faced with due to the pandemic, tuition for dual credit courses may seem out of reach.  Let me reaffirm our commitment to all students by letting you know that we will continue to provide course tuition waivers for students who have qualified for free and reduced lunch.

As always, please get in touch with me if you have any question or concerns.

Wishing you continued success in the year ahead,

Troy

Greetings ACP School Partners and Instructors,

Since your ACP students are taking IU courses, they may be selected throughout this semester for COVID-19 Mitigation Testing (see example email enclosed).  Most students will be able to “apply for an exemption” since they will have no physical presence on an IU campus.  If however a student is also taking courses on an IU campus (OPEN program, etc.), they may be required to complete the testing.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with me tbyler@indiana.edu. 

Thank you for all that you are doing for your students.

Sincerely,

Troy

Sample email: