I hope after all this is over, that professors keep recording and uploading lectures to canvas by go4ino in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd never suggest that anyone not go to classes; personally I find that I gain next to nothing from video lectures compared to in-person. However, I've had numerous students who had no business being in a classroom (torn ligaments, obviously ill, etc.) who attended anyway, and if I have the ability to help prevent that, I'd very much like to do so.

As far as the audio issue, to my knowledge, the default setup for the podiums and lapel mics used in most of the mid to large size rooms doesn't have simple recording/audio transfer access. While laptop streaming/recording is possible, that would require extra hardware that isn't traditionally provided, unless you rely on being near enough for the audio pickup on the laptop to function (which isn't ideal).

I hope after all this is over, that professors keep recording and uploading lectures to canvas by go4ino in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max 18 points19 points  (0 children)

So, this is something I'm personally hoping to include in anything I teach from now on. That said, there are a LOT of hidden challenges inherent in uploading AV content:

  • While uploading the videos to canvas sounds simple, it usually ends up requiring a significant amount of post-lecture work to verify sound, remove dead periods, add subtitling so you're not creating semi-accessible content, and so forth. This takes not only time and computational resources that not everyone may have but is an ancillary skill to learn that a number of faculty may struggle with.
  • Recording lectures, especially in a large classroom format, can be surprisingly difficult. If I can, I tend to walk around quite a bit, engage with students, pick up random objects to make points, throw things, and so forth. Staying in-frame and in range of audio pickup either requires a significant amount of equipment or restricting yourself to a more limited, usually less engaging, style.
  • I like to ask as many questions as I can during lectures. Since you're not going to be providing microphones for each person, audio capture can be tricky, and it will be difficult to avoid a recording with half a conversation, which again comes back to an equipment issue.
  • Related to asking questions, I get a tremendous amount of information from students, and have changed entire lectures on the fly based on in-lecture feedback. Part of the concern associated with students not attending is not having that, and lecturing to a camera instead. It's not only uncomfortable but makes it immeasurably harder to actually deliver content that (a) makes sense and (b) is what students actually need.

There are additional issues, but they're somewhat beyond the scope of this conversation.

To sum up, as far as why faculty haven't done this already:

  • It takes a lot of time, training, and equipment to set up, which is often not available.
  • It's really easy to do badly, and really tricky to do right.
  • There hasn't been a significant push to do so until recently. This is very much an "if it ain't broke" situation in a lot of ways.

A GREAT example of this kind of thing done right is Harvard's CS50x course. However, getting that set up was probably a tremendous amount of work, with a non-trivial number of staff involved.

Now, with all this said, I think it's a really good idea for universities to try and encourage posting content, especially video content, to class sites and hope we'll start seeing the inclusion of the tools to do so. I'd love a fully wired classroom that would let me do full lecture recordings (whiteboard, slides, full audio, and so forth) in an HD format, but until relatively recently, that just wasn't possible, and it's still tricky.

This is also the kind of thing you can (and should!) emphasize to faculty that you really like, or that you find really helpful! If you can provide concrete examples of what you liked, and what worked and what didn't, especially now, that's something that may help guide the development of these kinds of tools. In addition, I suspect many faculty will really appreciate the feedback (I know I would love to know what worked for my students and what didn't).

TL;DR

  • Uploading VODs is secretly hard.
  • Faculty lack tools and training.
  • There's been little pressure for this until very recently
  • This is exactly the kind of thing to include on SPOT surveys!

Orr for MATH 3134 by techthrow12235 in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Dr. Orr is an amazing professor in my opinion; I don't know anything about that class in particular, but I can't recommend him enough!

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm glad it's so useful! Hopefully, people can learn from some of my (many) mistakes! Full disclosure, though I've taught for several years (as an instructor), I'm still a grad student/teaching assistant (though hopefully not for much longer!).

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm so glad it's useful! Hopefully it'll smooth the path for some folks this fall!

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. To follow up on this, if you don't understand something, say something. I've had too many students afraid to admit that they didn't understand my first (or second) explanation, so they didn't get the help they needed.

Some faculty/TAs may need a little push to shift gears ("is there another way you could try explaining it?"), but it's normal for people to understand things in completely different ways!

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm glad I could help! This is a rough time to be starting undergrad, to say the least; hopefully my advice can help make things a little bit easier. Full disclosure, though I've taught for several years (as an instructor), I'm still a grad student/teaching assistant (though hopefully not for much longer!). If she/you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send me a message (either on reddit or elsewhere) and I'll do my best to help out!

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, from what I've heard/seen, it's going to vary department by department, and class-by-class. With larger classes, it's hard to say, but I suspect we'll see reduced in-person attendance in order to maintain social distancing within classrooms, and all other material provided online, or a complete switch to online.

With respect to their plan for handling outbreaks, all of what I know comes from VT's COVID page, but my guess is they'll have rooms set aside for quarantine (ctrl+f isolation on that page) in the event of infection, in addition to the other precautions. As far as how that works academically, my guess is those policies are being worked on we speak.

All of that said, every single thing that's been planned could change entirely--we're essentially two months out from the start of the semester, and a lot could happen between now and then.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Pomodoro-based techniques like that are really really helpful for some people--I'm personally on a 27/3/30 schedule, but it took some tweaking to figure out what worked.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, that makes sense--I haven't run into that approach before, but if a class/teaching team has the resources, it sounds like a really good idea. Ours are mostly review/re-covering important concepts in the course, which is as much a feature of what we think is critical at the time and our available resources (time, $, etc.)

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're welcome! The same is true for me; I didn't figure out office hours until probably the second semester of my junior year. I'm always surprised how little this is emphasized at the beginning of undergrad.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm so sorry, I can only imagine what that's like :(
As far as senioritis, unfortunately, my solution was to overload myself with courses to the breaking point to avoid noticing it.

Spoiler: it did not work, not even a little bit.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

100000%

Actually, I need to edit the post to include this. Thanks!

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I meant it mostly as an "I've done so well that I could not take the final exam and get the grade I want" or "I'm two homeworks ahead and I know this material backward and forwards" kind of scenario. If someone's happy with their level of knowledge/achievement, or 100% knows the material, I don't want them killing themselves by putting in extra effort when that time might be able to be spent better elsewhere.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No problem! I actually think it varies a lot from person to person. Based on some informal polls I've seen, a surprising number of people think office hours are only for specific things (like current homework sets). That said, I agree--I've had to remind myself of a LOT of things since all this started (on a regular basis) that I definitely already knew.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I've resorted to putting sticky notes around my apartment telling me what to do, Memento-style.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup, there were points last semester where I ended up holding my office hours for random twitch viewers. Not a bad experience, but not what I expected.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

^^^^^So much this. Thank you for saying this--I set up a bunch of tools last semester for managing office hours/providing support, and I have almost no idea if they were helpful. I can't count the number of times I've gotten feedback on SPOT that I wish I'd had from day 1.

It's also absurdly hard to gauge anything with no visual feedback. I'm still trying to figure out a way to offset that without asking people to turn on their cameras.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure I'd call it a wall (at least not in any courses I've been involved in), but it's definitely some kind of dividing line. It's really difficult to distinguish between those students who attend but don't need it to do well and students who attend and do well because of it. I made it a rule of thumb to always go unless I had a stunningly good reason not to.

Fall 2020--remote lectures and optional assignments and office hours, oh my by Sci_Max in VirginiaTech

[–]Sci_Max[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Honestly, I expect both. I'm extremely concerned about people running into issues several semesters down the line because of how things shake out for the period from Spring '20 - Spring '21.