VCOM Institutional Policy and Procedure Manual

VCOM Policy and Procedure

Policy #U035

2. CONTINUITY OF ACADEMIC OPERATIONS If a significant and lengthy suspension of instruction occurs that prohibits in-person learning, all classes will move to remote/virtual instruction or utilize a different temporary space or structure. The decision to suspend, modify, or relocate instructional activities will be made by designated institutional leadership in accordance with the College’s emergency governance structure. Instructional continuity plans will ensure that: • Course objectives, instructional hours, and assessment requirements remain substantially equivalent to the approved curriculum; • Alternative delivery methods (e.g., synchronous or asynchronous instruction) maintain academic rigor and comparability; • Required assessments, including examinations and clinical competency evaluations, are administered or rescheduled in a manner that preserves academic integrity and progression standards. VCOM supports technology infrastructure that enables academic instruction during times of short-term and long-term disruptions. VCOM leverages highly available educational technologies such as the Learning Management System (Canvas) and other workspace collaboration tools (Zoom, Teams, etc.), to minimize the likelihood of noticeable service interruption. In the unlikely event of faculty unavailability, the College will implement contingency instructional staffing plans, such as utilization of archived instructional materials. All lectures for the past few years from every campus are stored and available to students through a web-based media site, allowing immediate access to archived educational content in the extremely rare event that faculty would not be available for an extended period of time to deliver instruction. Further, Information Technology Services ensures that systems and service have been designed to ensure high availability, business continuity, and data integrity to the organization. Redundant systems are applied wherever possible, security standards are always practiced in line with organizational policy and industry standards, and regular remediation of risks are reviewed and implemented at least monthly but normally within 48 hours. The College utilizes multiple backup locations and strategies to mitigate risk. All data is backed up daily (35 copies), weekly (13 copies), and yearly (2 copies). Additionally, another backup set is performed weekly on data identified as mission critical and securely vaulted to mitigate risk from ransomware infections. Finally, cloud backup services are used to store encrypted copies of mission critical data offsite at all times as weekly copies. The College also maintains hard copies of certain documents such as final transcripts and diplomas.

VCOM Policy on Catastrophic Events and Continuity of Operations

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