CourseWorks and Sakai have suffered some delays and outages recently. Below is a guide to help faculty continue to communicate online, provide necessary course materials to their students, and stay informed about outages.

1) Create a student email list: A student email list allows faculty and instructors to contact their students via email with necessary course announcements and materials. To create an email list, log in to SSOL and click on “class list” under “faculty services.” Click on the class name. When the class list comes up, click on the “check all” option at the top and then “email selected students” at the bottom. This will create an email list, which you can copy/paste into your own mail client. Just like any other email, you may attach files or copy/paste content from your syllabus or other documents.

2) Activate a course wiki: A course wiki is a great alternative to a course management site. Columbia Wikispaces provides a wiki to every course at Columbia University. Wikis are collaborative websites that enable users to add, edit, and share multimedia content using basic word-processor-style tools. To get started with Columbia Wikispaces, you'll first need to activate your course wiki with your Columbia UNI. Once the wiki is activated, your students can join the wiki via the “self-join” link at https://wikispaces.columbia.edu. Instructors should visit the Wikispaces activation page.

3) Stay informed: Visit CCNMTL’s Status page to stay up-to-date on the status of all CCNMTL-related services. We also encourage faculty to keep an eye on the CUIT Alerts site.

4) Contact CCNMTL for support: CCNMTL staff members are also affected by outages and slow-downs. However, we might be able to suggest other alternative tools to meet your teaching needs. Visit our Faculty Support Lab in 204 Butler Library or contact ccnmtl@columbia.edu if you need help. We’d like to brainstorm a solution with you.