March 12, 2020

Welch Center Updates

Dear Graduate Students,

In follow up to President Devereaux’s March 11 email, I wanted to assure you that Goucher’s graduate and professional programs delivered through the Welch Center will continue without interruption. Our Critical Incident Response Team has worked diligently to ensure that all systems and processes continue as we transition to fully online instruction and remotely delivered student support services. In that context, I want to update you on what this will look like moving forward.

Face-to-face Programs

For those of you in our face-to-face graduate Education (M.A.T. and M.Ed.) courses where you meet together in a classroom with your instructor, you will temporarily transition to fully online instruction through your existing Canvas course site beginning Monday, March 16. This means starting Monday, you should not go to your face-to-face class.

Course content will not change in any way, but how that content is delivered will change, which may include all or some of the following available through your Canvas course site:

  • Contact information for your instructor, as well as your course syllabus and all course documents
  • Announcements from your instructor related to class expectations, updates, and requirements
  • Online discussion boards where you will respond in writing to the discussion question and then read and respond to the postings of your classmates and your instructor
  • Online submission and grading of assignments through your Canvas site
  • Individual and full-class video conferences to meet face-to-face online with your instructor or the entire class
  • Online office hours
  • Video lectures and slide shows posted by your instructor to share course content online
  • Online resources with instructions for help with Canvas or with other technology questions

Online instruction will continue through March 29, per President Devereaux’s announcement, and may be extended, if needed.

Low-Residency Programs

For our Low-Residency students, your online courses will continue to be available through the usual delivery method established by your instructor, and we are evaluating summer residency options as we speak. At this point, we are hoping to move forward with the planned on-campus residency for summer.

Online Programs

Our fully online Master of Science in Higher Education and Bachelor of Professional Studies programs will see no change, as Spring Term 1 wraps up on March 20 and Term 2 begins on March 23. Our fully online Master of Education and Master of Arts in Teaching courses will also proceed as they have all year.

Going Forward

During this time, all functions and services that support your success as a student will continue. We are fully equipped, trained, and prepared to deliver student services online, and you should continue to reach out to your instructor, to your advisor, and to Welch Center staff as you normally would. The best methods of contact are listed below:

  • General Welch Center questions: graduateprograms@goucher.edu
  • General graduate admissions questions: graduateadmissions@goucher.edu
  • Course-related questions – email your instructor using the contact information provided on your Canvas course site
  • General registration questions, such as add/drop, withdrawal, transcripts, course schedule, etc. – email our graduate registrar at christina.berke@goucher.edu
  • Specific registration questions related to which courses you plan to take next semester or to your program plan – email your advisor; if you are not sure who your advisor is, email your academic program director (key contacts listed here)
  • Questions about your Bachelor of Professional Studies or Master of Higher Education courses: cielo.cournoyer@goucher.edu

If at any time you do not receive a response, or still have unanswered questions or concerns, please reach out immediately to me (kathryn.doherty@goucher.edu).

It is also essential that you check your Goucher email once a day for updates; this is how we will communicate important information to you so, please, check it daily.

Through all of this, we are committed to maintaining the high-quality experience you expect. I am confident that you will see continuity and little change going forward. Registration for summer opens on April 13 (more information coming soon), and your advisors will be reaching out in the coming weeks to discuss your program plan and proposed courses.

In closing, please know that your health and safety is our first priority, and this is why Goucher decided to transition to fully online instruction temporarily. That said, it is important that you stay in touch with us here in the Welch Center—your instructor, your advisor, graduate staff, and program directors—and alert us if you are experiencing challenges related to the coronavirus that will impact your success in your course and your program. We will work with you to set up flexible pathways to success that will place your need to respond to those challenges first, while also keeping lines to academic success open. In a world where the “new normal” is changing every day, it is my goal that Goucher will remain a constant in your life to anchor and ground you as we adjust and adapt to the challenges posed by this situation.

Kathryn Doherty, Ed.D.
Associate Provost and Executive Director
Welch Center for Graduate & Professional Studies
410-337-6208
kathryn.doherty@goucher.edu
(pronouns: she, her, hers)