Overview
As students, faculty and staff return to campus this spring, it is essential that
the University be able to support our local health departments’ efforts to conduct
contract tracing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. If a student in a particular
course or courses tests positive, we must be able to quickly identify students
and instructors who have been potentially exposed in those classroom settings and
initiate further action.
To support this important effort, on-campus course instructors on all WVU campuses
will be required to do two things:
- Use assigned seating in each class.
- Take attendance and maintain assigned seating daily, whether attendance figures into course grading or not.
Once finalized, all seating charts will be submitted to a central location. It is
critical that we have this information centrally available and can retrieve attendance
records from instructors in a timely manner to facilitate contact tracing should
it become necessary.
If the information on file or your records are not correct, it is possible your
whole class may need to be quarantined.
Every face-to-face class session on the WVU Morgantown main and Potomac State College
campuses, irrespective of enrollment numbers, must follow the procedures outlined
below. WVU Tech and Health Sciences campuses will follow their own established
procedures for seating charts, but the requirements for taking attendance and ensuring
compliance with the seating charts apply to all campuses.
Seating Chart Instructions
(Morgantown main and Potomac State College campuses)
1. Accessing and Using the Seating Charts
Instructors can retrieve their seating chart using the following links:These online Qualtrics forms include detailed instructions on how to retrieve and submit the seating charts. Instructors will use the same online Qualtrics form to upload their final seating chart by the end of the day Tuesday, Feb. 2 . This deadline allows for adjustments in students’ schedules based on recent revisions to the 2020-2021 Academic Calendar , which include:
- The deadline for all students (regardless of program start date) to register for or add new courses to their schedule, make section changes or change their grading option to pass/fail or audit is Monday, Jan. 25.
- The deadline for all students (regardless of program start date) to drop a class or to withdraw from the University is Friday, April 16.
2. Explaining the Expectations to Students
On the first day of class, instructors should inform students that they will be
using a seating chart. This should be done in conjunction with explaining the
COVID-19 syllabus statement on the use of PPE and COVID-19 classroom safety
measures. (See
COVID-19 and Ensuring Safe Classroom Behavior.) Explain to students that
ensuring compliance with the seating chart is vital to contact tracing efforts,
should it become necessary.
-
NOTE: Recognizing that there might be movement with adjusting schedules, through
Feb. 1, instructors are not expected to submit their final seating charts
until end of the day Feb. 2. However, it is crucial that instructors keep
seating and attendance information for
every class day
to make contact tracing possible.
3. Assigning Seats
Instructors can either assign seats or allow the students to choose their seats.
Either way, instructors should tell students that the assigned seats will be final
after Feb. 2.
4. Completing the Chart
Starting the first day of class, instructors will need to complete a seating chart
each day until the class seating is finalized. However, instructors do not need
to submit it until it is finalized.
- NOTE: Instructors should save all of their charts and roll sheets to facilitate contact tracing until the final seating chart is set and submitted.
- NOTE: Instructors teaching in a hybrid format should see below for additional details.
5. Submitting the Chart
Once the final seating chart is complete, instructors must submit it by the
end of the day Feb. 2 using the online Qualtrics form listed in step 1.
6. Ensuring Adherence to the Chart
For each class period following the setting of assigned seats, instructors must ensure
students are sitting in their assigned seats by checking them against the seating
chart. If students are not in their assigned seats, instructors should ask them
to move to their assigned seats.
- NOTE: For hybrid format courses, instructors should ensure students are attending on their assigned day. If not, instructors should ask them to leave the class and return on their assigned day. (See COVID-19 and Ensuring Safe Classroom Behavior.)
Seating Charts for a Hybrid Class
For hybrid format courses in which only a subset of the class physically attends each day, instructors should complete a final seating chart for each unique day/subset of students and identify the day when submitting the chart(s).For example, for a hybrid alternate day format for a class that meets on Tuesdays
and Thursdays – and half of the students attend the Tuesday class and the other
half attend the Thursday class – instructors should submit two seating charts using
the online Qualtrics form listed in step 1.
Once assigned seats are fixed and the final seating chart(s) is submitted, instructors
do not need to submit additional seating charts unless they make changes. If there
are changes, please follow the procedure above to submit the new chart(s).
Classrooms with Movable Chairs
In the case of classrooms with movable chairs, instructors should ensure that
the chairs are arranged consistent with how they are depicted on the seating
chart. Since close contact group work is to be avoided, there should be no
need for chairs to be moved and/or arranged differently than they are depicted
on the seating chart. If the chairs and desks do deviate from what is depicted
on the seating chart, instructors should work with their students so that the
depicted order is restored at the beginning and/or end of class.
Seating Chart Alternatives
Many courses on campus do not utilize traditional classroom environments for face-to-face instruction. This could include lab-based classes in which students are largely moving about in a laboratory setting and/or conducting work outside in a field setting. Instructors who feel that assigned seating and the utilization of a seating chart is not possible in their class should contact Amanda DeBastiani ( akdebastiani@mail.wvu.edu). She will make note of your course, identify a relevant contact in case contact tracing should be needed, and explore alternatives to assigned seating.Taking Attendance and Tracking Seating
(all campuses)
Instructors must maintain attendance sheets and ensure compliance with the seating
charts for every class meeting to facilitate contact tracing efforts if needed.
Instructors are free to choose their own process for implementing these efforts.
Instructors who choose to use the
CBORD Mobile ID attendance software should note that this will only be sufficient
for
taking attendance; CBORD users will need to implement a separate effort
to ensure compliance with the seating chart.
For hybrid format courses, instructors should ensure students are attending on
their assigned day. If not, instructors should ask them to leave the class and
return on their assigned day.
(See
COVID-19 and Ensuring Safe Classroom Behavior
.)