The PittEd Justice Collective, a movement launched in June to center equity and anti-racist approaches in education, recently convened a panel of expert practitioners and scholars to provide insights on remote teaching and learning strategies. The webinar’s focus: anti-racist teaching and learning, and how to create remote learning environments that are anti-racist and equitable. You can watch the full webinar online and read highlights in Monday's PittWire article.

In a message to the University community on Wednesday, the Office of the Provost announced two significant developments:

• The remote learning period has been extended to Sept. 14. This adjustment will allow for the completion of staged arrival and shelter-in-place procedures so that all students can start in-person classes at the same time.
• The University has introduced Anti-Black Racism: History, Ideology, and Resistance, a free, one-credit course that consists of a series of lectures given by renowned faculty, staff, and activists. All first-year students will be automatically enrolled in the course for the fall term, and it will be made available to the broader University community in a few weeks.

Additional resources are now available to assist with the Flex@Pitt Hybrid classroom technology.

• Zoom Rooms – Introduction: This video is an overview of the Flex@Pitt hybrid technology recently installed in several classrooms across campus.
• Zoom Rooms – Technical Overview: This video explains the technical details of using Zoom Rooms to create meetings, record lectures, share your screen, and more using the newly installed technology.
• How to Schedule Zoom Meetings in Canvas (so the recordings show up in your course): This interactive module guides you through the steps of creating a Zoom class meeting that integrates with Canvas and Panopto.

The University of Pittsburgh Testing Center will remain closed while the University is in the High and Elevated postures. UPTC will reopen for limited testing services after the University of Pittsburgh moves to the Guarded Risk posture, and after an evaluation of building readiness by Facilities Management. Please continue to visit our Assessment Strategies webpage on a regular basis for information about alternative forms of assessment. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding.

If you're thinking about creating short video lectures or other multimedia content for your course this fall, visit our video software (asynchronous) page to learn more about software options for recording, editing, and distributing your videos. You can also visit our page about using multimedia in your teaching for additional information and resources.

The Flex@Pitt Playbook is now available and can help you frame options to design and develop a course that can accommodate the needs of in-person and remote students and instructors, address issues associated with possible rotating student cohorts, and flexibly respond to the possibility of changing public health regulations and recommendations. Visit the playbook resources on the Flex@Pitt Teaching Support course in Canvas for additional resources, workshops, diagrams, and tips. You may also visit our redesigned Teaching Center home page to browse resources related to Flex@Pitt implementation steps, key recommendations, remote course development strategies, and asynchronous teaching methods.