Dear Horned Frogs:

The end of the spring semester is in sight, and I want to thank all of you for your patience and dedication to your academic goals. Together, we are keeping our campus community safe and quickly adapting to the challenges of a virtual educational environment.

We’re now transitioning to the summer term, and are faced with the same uncertainties as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten the health and well-being of our communities. Consequently, the University has decided to continue in an online learning environment for almost all courses offered from May through August of 2020.

I’m happy to say that this will be a new and improved remote learning environment. I know that for some, the transition has not always been smooth, given the quick pivot required. We did our best to get through this transition, and I’m proud of all of you. We have now had time to apply our learnings in preparation for a robust summer term.

Please note that registration appointments for summer and fall will begin on April 20, 2020. Additional information will be coming as we get closer to the beginning of the term, but I want to share some key points with you in order to assist with your planning as soon as possible.

This summer, you will encounter two types of online course offerings. The difference is primarily in how class participation is structured:

1. FULLY ONLINE: Some existing courses are still available in a fully-online format. We describe these courses as being “asynchronous,” meaning students work independently of each other. You can identify those by their section numbers of 400 to 499.

2. HYBRID ONLINE: All other courses will be “Hybrid Online Courses,” TCU’s new educational format for summer. In this type of course, students will:

   • attend required synchronous sessions, meaning you will have scheduled meetings as a class.
   • engage with other students in content-focused learning activities.
   • submit work or create a learning artifact at least every seven days during the course session.
   • have faculty who have been trained and certified to teach in the Hybrid Online format.

Although we don’t have every detail to share with you yet, we are in the process of reviewing and confirming current course offerings, and also exploring the possibility of adding courses to help keep you on-track with your degree plan. Consequently, we encourage you to continue monitoring your anticipated schedule using TCU’s “Class Search” tool at https://classes.tcu.edu/ and to reach out to your advisors closer to April 20th.

We can’t wait to gather again on-campus as a TCU community! Until that is possible, you can expect an online learning environment that is engaging, challenging, and reflects the high academic standards of a Texas Christian University education. Our faculty and staff are making every effort to keep you safe, and on path to graduation.

Chancellor Boschini and I have heard from many of you over the past few weeks, and I want to personally thank you for your wit, your resilience and for your grace as we navigate these unusual times in the life of our University.

Sincerely,
** Teresa Abi-Nader Dahlberg**