June 2022 On-Campus Session FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

IWS will keep this page updated with the latest information about how the virtual campus/online intensive session will work. These answers are subject to change as new information comes available.

Please check the Safety Protocols page for the latest information. No. Students with a valid reason for not attending in person (e.g. health concerns, government travel restrictions, or other exigent circumstances) will be able to petition to attend remotely. Click here to petition. International students will have the opportunity to take classes on campus, but must have a valid F-1 visa in order to travel to the United States. Please see the FAQ here for more information about how the visa process works and what your responsibilities are as an international student at IWS. To request an I-20 form, please email us as soon as possible. Students unable to come on campus will participate through “mixed modality” classroom technology. On-campus and remote students will be able to converse in real time with one another and their faculty. All courses will be conducted synchronously—that is, everyone will participate in realtime whether or not they are physically present in class. In-class activities will be adjusted appropriately. Students in time zones far ahead or behind U.S. Eastern Standard Time will need to adjust their schedules accordingly; they will not be permitted to watch recordings of lectures in lieu of attending live. Chapel and other campus activities will be streamed online. Professors may record live lectures for students to review for a limited time period or in cases of technical difficulties. Students must attend live or make every effort to do so in order to receive access to these recordings. Ongoing technical difficulties presenting a student from attending class live may result in a student being dropped from a class or delayed to a future semester. IWS invested a lot of resources into designing these hybrid classrooms. We have implemented technology that fits our specific classroom model, and we have been evaluating equipment and refining our approach since the fall of 2020 to ensure we can make this work and create an experience as close as possible to having everybody physically in one room. We chose products to minimize the impact on professor teaching styles, maximize audio clarity without feedback or interference, and which could show anybody actively talking on camera to assist with intelligibility. Students and faculty members participating in mixed modality courses from June 2021 onwards have highly rated the clarity of audio and video provided by the technology. IWS has also increased technology staffing to support these classrooms. The online classroom environment will make use of Microsoft Teams. You can download that app for your computer, smartphone, or tablet today. Prior to the start of the semester, students will be given instructions for signing into their account. Students will need:

• A computer, tablet, and/or phone
• Reliable internet access (recommend at least 5 mbps download speed and 1.5 mbps upload speed; more if you will be sharing the connection with others)
• Headphones or earphones to prevent feedback
• A working microphone (the one built into a laptop, phone or tablet is fine as long as you have headphones plugged in)
• Time! Students must be prepared to treat the session as if they were away from their home contexts. The virtual classroom will require each student’s full attention just as if they were on campus. Avoid multitasking.

All students will attend activities as they occur live on our Jacksonville, FL, campus. Click here for the daily schedule (times listed are US Eastern Standard Time, GMT -4 in June).
The Technical Services team will continue developing guides and tutorials, and will conduct technical “check-ins” for students and faculty in advance of the session to help identify potential problems ahead of time. We will have an expanded team on-call during the intensive. We are committed to doing what it takes to make this work well! All students should make every effort to attend a technical check-in prior to the session to verify that they can connect to Teams meetings and participate. Students who attend such a check-in will be prioritized by the helpdesk if they encounter issues during the intensive. All students must declare their intention (as best as they know it) to attend in person or petition to attend remotely by May 18 by completing this form for June 2022. Students requiring a waiver can file their petition through the June 2022 Participation Form. Students who cannot meet the existing deadlines due to Covid need to contact their instructors and Catherine Nance as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made.