UETN's Preparations for Coronavirus

The Utah Education and Telehealth Network (UETN) is working to prepare multiple resources and provisions for education and healthcare as warranted by the impact of the Coronavirus. UETN connects thousands of students and patients through existing circuits to schools and healthcare institutions, but will continue to explore ways to support education and telehealth services to homes.

UETN is actively collaborating with the Utah Department of Health to identify telehealth resources in the state that may be used to remotely triage patients and direct people to the right level of health care for their medical needs. Telehealth technology can help prevent urgent care facilities and emergency departments from overcrowding and unnecessary use of these services.

While UETN’s statewide backbone currently connects schools, libraries, hospitals and clinics, we realize that those we serve may need robust home connections for telehealth, education and working from home. Thanks to decades of work with private sector telecoms, we are seeking to identify solutions that service providers can implement to support home connectivity. For example major providers (like CenturyLink and Comcast) offer low cost internet Lifeline for eligible households.

For more than 95 percent of Utah homes that do have access to internet services, UETN has listed free collaboration and web conferencing solutions below. To students and educators, UETN provides the Instructure Canvas learning management system which supports home study. Canvas is widely used by public education and higher education in Utah.

UETN continues to meet regularly as a leadership team and with stakeholders to assess readiness to respond to the changing needs of schools and healthcare and to comply with directives from the Utah State Department of Health and the University of Utah where UETN is headquartered. The UETN board and advisory councils will also continue to provide guidance and input from the education and healthcare organizations they represent.

UETN connects more than 658,000 public education students at 1,130 schools and facilities. The Network also provides broadband to 211,000 postsecondary students and trainees, and connects 77,000 educators and staff from Pre-K through college. In addition, UETN serves more than 70 hospitals, community health centers, clinics, health departments and dialysis centers.

Resources for Students and Educators

• Learn @ Home includes lessons for teachers to share online with families
• eMedia video on demand
• Utah’s Online Library and Preschool Pioneer
• UEN has licensed over 100 fully online courses for secondary students from BYU Independent Study that can be easily imported to Canvas.
• Canvas Commons can also be activated by local Canvas admins. This is a catalog of already developed resources to share and reshare through Canvas. 
• UEN-TV, a 24/7 digital television channel with educational content that students can access from home without computers or the internet. View the schedule here.

Resources for Healthcare

• Utah Telehealth Network
• Free Webinar: Telehealth and COVID-19
• Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center
• Utah Department of Health Coronavirus Website
• UEN-TV Monthly Health Programs

Collaboration Tools

Here are several free collaboration tool options:

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