First Class

Please plan to arrive at least 15-20 minutes early to allow sufficient time to make any changes needed or to arrange materials. If there will be anything out of the ordinary at this first class, or at any class in the future, it is advisable to alert your room operator in advance to the special circumstances, e.g. group discussions planned, in-class exams, or use of special materials that may require extra equipment to be set up and tested.

The operator needs about 90 seconds to get underway. When you are ready to begin, tell the room operator to commence. As soon as the “slate” designating the date and lecture number appears on the room monitors you may begin. Your lectures are numbered consecutively, and do not include any class sessions (such as in-class exams) that are not recorded, so as to avoid number skips which confuse future distance students who may think they have missed a lecture.

In this first class, and all subsequent meetings, take attendance and do any other time-consuming tasks that do not pertain to remote students before or after the recording. Also please remind the in-class students that punctuality is especially important in a videoclassroom, as late entries can be noisy and distracting both on audio and video. Be sure, however, that all pertinent information given to your on-campus students is also conveyed to the distance students. If you have important announcements affecting both, it should be included in the tape.

Your in-class students should feel no differently toward taking a course in a videoclassroom than in any other campus classroom. They can ask questions, volunteer information, participate in discussion groups as you direct, in short, do everything they would in an ordinary classroom. The only exception is that food and beverages, which can cause damage to desktop microphones and computer ports, are not permitted in the videoclassroom.

Inform students that videocassette copies of each class are placed in the D. H. Hill Library’s Media Center, Erdahl-Cloyd Wing, on an approximate one-week delay. These will remain at the Media Center until the end of the semester. The tapes and headphones are checked out at the circulation desk in the Media Center and then viewed on a library videocassette player. The tapes cannot be checked out for use outside of the Media Center.

At this time please indicate any restrictions you may have regarding your acceptance of tape viewing as equivalent to attendance. Faculty who have accepted tape viewing in lieu of class attendance in extenuating circumstances have experienced little abuse of this privilege. Encourage your in-class students or the room operator to feel free to let you know when you might need to reposition or focus the material under the document camera to provide them a better view, or if you removed something too quickly.

Important reminders:

• There should be open communication between you and the videoclassroom operator while class is in session. The operator should feel free to make suggestions to help you with technical/visual/audio aspects of the class. You should also feel free to make any suggestions to the operator before, during, or after the class that will help improve the instruction.
• Avoid rapid movements of objects or gestures under the document camera, especially when the camera is in an extreme close-up. In such cases movement is distractingly magnified along with the image.
• Distance education room operators are quite busy during the taping and their attention is focused on the recording of quality audio and video. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that they hear every announcement you make. Please be sure that they are aware of any announcements you make to the class which might affect them, such as scheduling changes, review sessions, and upcoming exams.
• You are free to go anywhere in the room, though verbally cuing the room operator of your intended destination for the first few sessions until s(he) is accustomed to your movements will help ensure that the camera follows you.
• The wireless microphone provided must be switched on before you begin. Please remember to switch it off and remove the microphone before you leave the classroom.
• It is helpful to repeat pertinent questions and comments made by students, or to make sure this information is implicit in your reply. When the operators notice that you fail to repeat a question that did not get picked up by the microphone, they should remind you by saying, “Question, please.” It would also be helpful if you would tell the room operator that you welcome a reminder if you forget to restate the question.

Murphy’s Law: There is a great deal of redundancy built into the videoclassroom to reduce the likelihood of a breakdown. However, it is the nature of technology that something could go wrong. If in the rarest of cases a recording subsequently proves to be unusable, you will be requested to re-record that lecture.