Written by Karina Kosmala

Starting March 23, 2020, all Concordia University Chicago (CUC) undergraduate courses, will be moving to an online e-learning format as a way to adjust to the coronavirus outbreak and encourage social distancing. Graduate courses that originally were face-to-face were moved to an online e-learning format scheduled to start March 16, 2020.

On March 16, 2020, students, staff and faculty received an email from President Dr. Russell Dawn updating the conditions of the coronavirus and how the rest of the semester will operate. This email was an update from Vice President Dr. John Zillman’s email sent on March 11, 2020.

The extended spring break (3/16-3/20) (for undergraduate students) allowed professors to transition their in-person or hybrid curriculum to an online format. Depending on the professor of the course, courses will be held either in an asynchronous format, where students will post their assignments at their own pace, or in a synchronous format, where students will meet via Blackboard collaborate at the designated time that they would originally meet for class.

However, this transition led to some confusion in terms of whether the 2nd set of eight-week courses also followed the new start date or the original start date for courses, March 16, 2020.

Vice President Dr. Zillman clarified that “Although the 8-week courses were loaded into Blackboard earlier this week, the official start of instruction is Monday, March 23, 2020.”

Other changes were incorporated into the academic calendar as well, such as the “traditional undergraduate Easter Break being canceled” and “used as class time” as mentioned in Dean Kathy Gebhardt’s email. However, the withdrawal dates are extended for 16-week undergraduate and graduate courses, and 2nd eight-week undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as an extended refund date for 2nd eight-week undergraduate course.