Hurricane Preparation Information for Online Faculty

Unfortunately, the state of Florida is strongly impacted by hurricanes. Though you may not live in the Florida area, it is important to be aware of how your students are affected during and after a significant storm, and to help them be successful in their online courses. The majority of our distance learning students live in Florida, any number of which may be affected by either evacuating their homes or losing power for any length of time.

Please keep current with Florida’s weather-related events by checking Florida Community College ’s Alert webpage: http://alert.fccj.edu/. The official news source for Florida Community College at Jacksonville closings and area weather reports is http://wokv.com.

It is helpful to determine each student’s physical location during the semester/session, so that you can estimate the effect of storms on your students, and prepare your course schedule accordingly.

Have your students contact you in advance if they are in the path of the storm and think they will be affected (by phone if they do not have power).

Have an alternative plan should students miss a few days/weeks of class if they have been affected. If a significant number of your students are affected, consider reorganizing the class schedule, providing print-based alternative assignments of equivalent scope for those who lose power, or working with students on accomplishing as much work as possible and granting incompletes for those who may need a few extra weeks to catch up. We will gladly assist you with coordinating extensions and deadlines for your students in order for them to be successful.

Be flexible and understand that we have no control over the hurricane and power situations, and neither do students.

Suggest to students that they may want to work ahead of the class schedule, if possible, should a hurricane affect them and they lose power. If you use proctored testing, remind students that they may need to reschedule their testing.

While we have suggested to students who may not have power to try their local library or college, this may not be an option, as these places also may not have power or students may not be able to travel to these destinations.

Use this airing schedule to view the public service announcement "On Track with a Hurricane" via educational cable access.