Low Density Resources

Parameters for Low Density Model

  • See your Chair or Dean for details related to your department or disciplines' instructional choices.

    • Include in-person teaching for a minimum of one-90 minute lab block or a minimum of two-50 minute class meetings per week

    • Maximum of one asynchronous session per week or optional synchronous session to help with Zoom fatigue. (Note: An optional synchronous session is technically asynchronous time for the students who opt not to attend; students cannot be penalized for not attending an optional synchronous session---we had this model in April and May and it worked well.)

    • When a choice is made, please stick with that weekly meeting pattern for the 6 weeks---it helps the students to have consistency.

    • Attendance for Asynchronous Classes: Faculty may choose to report attendance for asynchronous classes if an assignment is submitted OR to click the "Class Cancelled" option in Blackbaud. The "class cancelled" option does not affect the student attendance record so it is the best option to use if nothing is collected for attendance for an asynchronous class.

  • Office hours can be offered in-person or remotely, instructor choice.

  • Tutoring can be offered in-person or remotely, instructor choice.

  • The day of the week for in-person instruction is instructor choice.

  • Similar to what we have done in May 2020 and December 2021, at the end of the semester, faculty can offer remote final assessments during final assessment week.


An example of a course that meets 4 days per week. Your dean/chair can discuss specific options with you, if needed.

Option A

  • 2 hybrid classes with ClearTouch (50 minute and 90 minute)

  • 1 synchronous class

  • 1 asynchronous class or 1 optional synchronous class (teacher available for questions; group work, connect with class, etc.)

Option B

  • 2 hybrid classes with ClearTouch (50 minute and 50 minute),

  • 1 synchronous class

  • 1 asynchronous class or 1 optional synchronous class (teacher available for questions; group work, connect with class, etc.)

Option C

  • 1 hybrid class with ClearTouch (90 minute)

  • 2 synchronous classes

  • 1 asynchronous class or 1 optional synchronous class (teacher available for questions; group work, connect with class, etc.)


Feb 23 Joint Message from the Faculty Senate Officers and Academic Programs - Student Support Request

As part of their efforts to support students and communicate their class workload expectations, several faculty began to send a weekly guide where they outlined their expectations for the 7 hours of weekly student engagement. For example, a teacher might share the following information on Monday.


Class Time HW & Reading Group Work Quiz Prep Total

3.5 hours 1.5 hours 1 hour 1 hour 7 hours


Student Government leaders have received feedback that this type of structure has been very helpful to students and have requested that faculty implement similar guidelines across all coursework. Academic Programs and Faculty Senate Officers request that you consider adding one or more of the following practices to your spring semester plans.


  • Create a weekly guide similar to the example above.

  • Indicate your expectation for how long a student should spend on a particular assignment when you post the assignment, and include some guidance on what students should do if they exceed the expected time (e.g., contact you for a conversation, set up a meeting with you to review the assignment).

  • Have a conversation with your class about workload. Discuss how long you expect students to spend on particular assignments and what they should do if they cannot complete the work in the expected time.

  • Collect feedback about workload from your class a few times during the semester using these suggestions from our colleagues in Institutional Research.


Thank you for considering an option listed above. We appreciate your constant support of our students.

Keethan Kleiner, Sam Wheeler, Krupal Amin, Angela Teachey, and Katie O’Connor


Follow-Up on Fall 2020 Survey Recommendations:


Ensuring an Appropriate Weekly Workload and Seeking Student Feedback about Course Experience

  • Each core class should require no more than 7 total hours of weekly engagement for students (including synchronous sessions, asynchronous sessions, and homework), and non-core classes should require no more than 3.5 total hours of weekly engagement for students.

  • We understand that adjustments due to the pandemic response may mean that some content is missed or not covered as thoroughly. While content is very important, so are the health and well-being of our community. Please continue to allow yourselves and your students grace during these challenging times. You may find that some content is best suited for an asynchronous session or an optional synchronous session, while other content is best taught during hybrid session(s) or synchronous session(s). It will be impossible to cover all the content in a course during the pandemic with a 7 hour per week engagement maximum. Focus on the most essential goals and outcomes. Faculty can give fewer assessments.

  • AP Courses have 7 hours of engagement per week as well. AP instructors can offer optional preparation times; these must be optional and cannot penalize a student for not attending. Please consider asking which students plan to take the AP Exam because not all students are planning to take the exam this May. The students who plan to take the AP Test will most likely be the students who attend any optional test preparation times that are offered.

  • As you are preparing your syllabi and course expectations, please keep a few points in mind. As a reminder, we have compiled a list of ideas for academic relief strategies. Please incorporate some of these ideas on the front-end of your spring planning as you prepare for classes.

  • As a reminder, we have the following items for your cleaning baskets: bucket, hand sanitizer, wipes, gloves (medium or large), cleartouch screen cleaner, disinfectant spray (notify housekeeping via a work order if you need a refill), towels (notify housekeeping via a work order if you need a refill). Please email Kathy Mueller if you are out of items or need a new kit.

  • We have asked the student(s) to follow the following protocol if he/she/they are working over the maximum work limit, please do the following:

Contact the instructor first and schedule a conversation. Please bring with you a weekly breakdown of how much time you are spending on each item. This will help inform the conversation and help work toward a solution.


If you need additional support, contact the department chair.

Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Garrett Love

Humanities, Mr. Adam Sampieri or Mrs. Meredith Murphy

Fine Arts, Mr. Scott Laird

Mathematics, Mrs. Cheryl Gann

Biology, Dr. Kim Monahan

Chemistry, Dr. Michael Bruno

Physics, Dr. Jon Bennett


For additional questions, please contact the appropriate dean.

Dean of Engineering and Computer Science, Dr. Joe LoBuglio

Dean of Humanities, Ms. Elizabeth Moose

Dean of Mathematics, Mr. Taylor Gibson

Dean of Science, Dr. Amy Sheck


Departments will ensure instructors have an easily accessible channel for regular feedback from students about the course experience and workload.

Faculty, please have conversations with your classes about their course experience and remind your students to schedule a meeting with you or visit your office hours to talk about the course experience/workload. Academic Programs has worked with Institutional Research to create a question bank with “check-in” questions related to the course experience/workload. Feel free to choose 2-3 questions from the question bank to use on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to obtain feedback via a Google Form, an in-class conversation, 1v1 meetings, or small group meetings. The results that you collect are for your information only and can be used to tweak or modify an assignment, a due date, an assessment, etc. This is faculty-driven and faculty-led. We will provide some sample questions though.


Increasing Comfort with Hybrid Model

  • We will post any optional professional development opportunities in the weekly Faculty message.

  • Consider devoting one class meeting each month for an informal sharing session or activity.

  • Encourage student interaction using technology by regularly incorporating paired and group work/Zoom break-out sessions in class meetings to provide discussion and team work/group work time.

  • Create interactive lessons in which students work together to annotate a shared Google document, white board, or Zoom screen.

  • Explore tools like flipgrid and padlet, which allow students to “connect” asynchronously by allowing students to post and comment using pictures and video in an engaging format.

  • Please visit the TLC website for many resources.



Canvas Resources

The TLC recently added some useful rubrics to our Canvas account that can be added to any assignment. Here's a quick video explaining the types of rubrics we've added, showing you how to add rubrics to your assignments and how to use these rubrics in context of speed grader.

No time to watch the video, no problem! Here are some basic instructions for adding these rubrics to your assignments:

  • Go to an assignment

  • At the bottom of the page select 'Add Rubric'

  • Click on 'Find a Rubric' (upper right side of the rubric window)

  • Scroll to NC School of Science & Math (left-hand side of the pop-up box)

  • Select one of the 14 rubrics that best aligns with the assignment type (middle column in the pop-up box)

  • Be sure to select the box that says 'use this rubric for assignment grading'

  • Click on 'update rubric'


Building Connections in the Classroom/Building Connections Outside the Classroom

Consider the following suggestions to build community inside and outside the classroom:

  • Consider devoting one class meeting each month for an informal sharing session or activity.

  • Encourage student interaction using technology by regularly incorporating paired and group work/Zoom break-out sessions in class meetings to provide discussion and team work/group work time.

  • Create interactive lessons in which students work together to annotate a shared Google document, white board, or Zoom screen.

  • Explore tools like flipgrid and padlet, which allow students to “connect” asynchronously by allowing students to post and comment using pictures and video in an engaging format.

  • As part of available spring “professional units,” faculty are encouraged to participate in Student Life-sponsored activities that already exist (see NCSSM Activities Calendar).

  • Also, every Thursday, Taylor Parsons sends an email titled TWAN (This Weekend at NCSSM) with a list of activities from Thursday night through Sunday. You will be impressed with the options that students have to be involved---feel free to join a Trivia night, a cooking class, etc. Students would enjoy your participation.

  • With Student Life, consider offering informal Zoom “discussion tables” about various questions, topics, short readings, or interests co-led by a faculty member and student, or by a staff member and student, or by two staff/faculty members. The question, discussion topic, or short reading would become the ground of connection.

  • All faculty were trained in January to facilitate Race Dialogue Sessions. Consider being a facilitator for a small group student session.

  • Foster collegiality (e.g., virtual lunch, discipline meetings, have lunch with faculty and staff in other divisions or departments, PLCs, outdoor lunch in the tents).

  • From Scott Laird: The 10-minute Check-In


Addressing Audio Challenges

  • Departments will take inventory of classrooms to create a consolidated list of any audio issues that we have left. We have been investing in more robust audio solutions.

  • We will also continue to review the classroom acoustics (e.g., need for acoustical panels, rugs).


Ensuring Internet Connectivity

If you need connectivity assistance or if you know of a student, faculty member or staff member who needs Internet connectivity assistance, please see the two reminders below:

  • A reminder that to acquire connectivity assistance for students, please email Mattie Gaddy-Parks.

  • A reminder that to acquire connectivity assistance for faculty/staff, please email Kathy Mueller.


Streamlining Communications

  • We will shift the Academic Programs faculty update message to the beginning of the week, instead of on Fridays. We will only send messages, when needed, to reduce emails.

  • We will continue to send students and families weekly messages with Student Life, as needed.


Continuing to Emphasize Student Support