THE University of Newcastle is preparing to transition to remote teaching and learning for its courses, saying it expects online classes may begin as soon as Monday.
Vice Chancellor, Professor Alex Zelinsky, wrote to students and staff on Thursday afternoon saying UON "will continue to run during this time - with some innovative online solutions to help enable our operations to continue".
"Professor Liz Burd is working with Associate Deans of Learning and Teaching to adapt courses to support online engaged learning," Professor Zelinsky wrote.
"Course co-ordinators have been asked to prepare a detailed weekly learning plan for their courses for at least weeks five [the week commencing March 23], six and seven.
"Courses will be approved for online delivery once the weekly learning plan has been quality assured."
Students will be advised on a course-by-course basis when to switch to studying from home.
"Detailed information on transition arrangements has been provided directly to our academic staff," he wrote.
"We expect that online teaching can commence as soon as Monday.
"We will reassess at the Easter break about extending to the end of semester.
"It is important to note that some face-to-face activities will still go ahead - like laboratory sessions - and we're working through these details.
"Our university campuses will of course remain open for those students and staff who wish to use our spaces."
Professor Zelinsky said UON was also planning for the transition to "periods of working from home where it makes sense".
"While this will not be possible for all staff, the nature of social distancing measures means spreading the workforce across a broader space is safer for all," he wrote.
Professor Zelinsky also said UON would introduce 10 days of COVID-19 leave for all staff.
"Given the quite extraordinary health emergency we are facing, the university has decided to grant all staff, including casual and sessional staff, a safety net of up to 10 working days of Special COVID-19 leave," he wrote.
"This will support you in the event that you contract COVID-19 or are required to self-isolate due to COVID-19 exposure and are not fit to or are unable to continue working while in self-isolation.
"We will provide more details about these arrangements - and other HR-related matters - [Friday]."
National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) Newcastle branch acting president Dan Conway said the NTEU was "pleased the university has moved to accommodate what we have lobbied for at a local, state, and national level over the past few weeks".
"This outcome, which is a result of the hard work of many NTEU and university staff, means that all affected staff will have options available to them if they become either directly or indirectly affected by COVID-19," Mr Conway said.
"We are comforted knowing that all staff, including casual staff, who are unwell or need to isolate due to COVID-19 exposure, now have access to two weeks special leave.
"It is also pleasing to see that provisions have been made for any staff member who, while having no requirement to isolate, want to minimise the risk of exposure and therefore the risk to their family by working from home.
"We will continue to monitor workloads as the majority of teaching moves online next week, however are confident we can work with the university to identify and manage workload issues as they arise."
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