Lectures
Many University of Rochester courses fundamentally rely on significant lecture components. Faculty will need to make decisions about how to organize and deliver their lectures effectively and equitably so that students attending face-to-face, virtually from campus, and virtually from different time zones can have reasonable access to the lectures.
Pre-recording Lectures
One option is to pre-record and post your lectures. This provides your students with flexibility in viewing the material and provides you with greater control on the structure and the progress of the course.
If you choose to pre-record and post your lectures, we recommend:
- Breaking lectures into multiple short video segments (5-15 minutes) to maximize student engagement
- Posting online videos and other online materials at least two days in advance of when students are expected to have viewed the material
- Clearly communicating your expectations for viewing online content to students
- Uploading course content on a fixed schedule (i.e. at a certain day or time) so students have predictable access to course materials
- Communicate promptly with students about deviations to the schedule
- Adding opportunities for interaction; for example, pair lectures with a monitored discussion board, so students can ask questions
- Using pre-recorded lectures in conjunction with synchronous activities so students have clarity on the requirement to pre-view lectures
- Using Panopto to incorporate short quizzes in the middle of videos, and assigning nominal credit for these quizzes to encourage students to view the videos
- Adhering to credit hour policies and keeping the total video lengths reasonably comparable to class time
Recommendations by Class Size
When physical distancing guidelines change classroom capacities, large enrollment classes may be delivered online given that even our largest lecture halls seat fewer than 60 students under physical distancing. Many courses may have only half of the on-campus students attending on a given class day, with the other on-campus half participating remotely.
Below are suggestions for structuring lecture-centric courses based on the anticipated final enrollment size. If your course is open to first-year students, note that your enrollment will change throughout the summer.
Regardless of your class size, you will likely have remote learners, both some that are on-campus and some that may be in distant time zones. Because of this, consider using assessment methods appropriate for both face-to-face and online students. Assessment suggestions and best practices can be found on our assessment page.
Large Lecture Courses (100+ Students)
In times when these classes are held virtually under physical distancing policies, we recommend delivering content asynchronously, when possible. Structure class so that there are multiple opportunities for students to interact with you and each other. To help build a learning community (community of inquiry) we recommend you:
- Use class time for office hours, project-based learning discussion sections, and recitations
- Assign (if possible), a TA/peer educator to help monitor and manage students who are online to make sure that they are able to engage as fully as possible in discussions and other activities
- Consider developing parallel activities for remote learners that cannot practically participate during class time due to time zone issues
- These can include assigning remote students in similar time zones into learning partner groups and having these students meet with you or the TA/peer educator away from class time
If you are planning on pre-recording and posting lectures, be sure to follow the pre-recording best practices listed above.
Smaller Lecture-Based Courses (Fewer than 100 Students)
Recognize that you may have three cohorts of students, those who:
- Attend lecture on a given day
- Participate remotely while on campus
- Participate remotely while off campus
Review the above suggestions for large lecture classes and consider practices that can build connection and engagement among students in each cohort. These include setting up learning partner groups and activities within each cohort or developing activities that build a learning community (community of inquiry).
If a Panopto-enabled classroom is not available, we recommend using a tablet or drawing tablet in place of the traditional board. The work you do on the tablet/drawing tablet can be projected for face-to-face students to view live and can be recorded directly through Zoom for remote students to view.
Please review the Zoom section of the learning activities for synchronous online classes page to make sure you're providing the best experience for students.
Classroom Experience
In determining the classroom experience you feel best suits your students, please consider the possible options for running lecture courses.
For this method you can either:
- Hold lectures as normal, teaching live to students who can attend and, if possible, broadcast live to students who cannot be present in person but are available at the allotted time period*.
- Record lecture and upload to Panopto for remote students to view if they cannot attend synchronously.
*We recommend using Zoom and not Panopto for livestreams, as Panopto overtaxes internet infrastructure in streaming mode.
No matter what option you choose, we recommend pairing the lecture with a discussion board to allow remote students to ask questions and more easily engage with the material.
All assignments, lectures, and assessments should available online.
Pros:
- Easy for faculty, can maintain normalcy as much as possible
- Limited extra work for faculty
- In-person experience doesn’t suffer
- All online materials are asynchronous
Cons:
- More passive experience for remote students
- Similar to what happened in spring 2020 (which was generally met with negative student feedback)
For this option you would hold lectures as normal and have a TA come to class to engage remote students synchronously (preferably on a department-provided laptop for privacy reasons). Class would be broadcasted live through zoom and require all students to attend either in person or virtually.
TA can manage questions from the remote students that may arise, and any group work will need to include remote students.
Pros:
- Remote students are as close to in-person as possible
- Faculty only have to teach class once
- Students feel connected to campus/community
Cons:
- Time zones will keep some students from likely being able to attend synchronously
- Technology limitations in some classrooms may present challenges
- Requires significant TA and Event and Classroom Management (ECM) support
Teach the course twice: once at the regularly scheduled time for students who can meet in-person and once virtually for remote students at a time that collectively works for them.
Pros:
- Both the in-person and remote students feel sense of community
- Can accommodate time zones more easily
Cons:
- Requires instructor to teach the course twice
- Two separate learning communities instead of one
Record lectures for students to view asynchronously and follow best practices for pre-recorded lectures listed above.
You can use class time for active learning and will likely need two separate experiences, one for remote students and one for in-person students. Alternatively, you could potentially create a different experience for remote students if time zones cannot be accommodated.
Integrate alternative assessment methods into the class time for more frequent and lower-stakes experiences.
Pros:
- Allows all students equal access to lecture material
- Creates learning communities
- Class time can be kept shorter than the full lecture (assuming credit hour regulations are met), potentially allowing for half the class to attend one day and the other half another day
- More active, engaged learning under the supervision of the instructor
Cons:
- Have to prepare the lecture videos ahead of time
- Requires the creation of in-class active learning activities (but this is also a pro, since such activities are hugely beneficial to students!)
With all asynchronous video options, we recommend including some formative assessment check to ensure students are understanding the main concepts. Some ways to provide such a check could be through embedding comprehension quiz questions into lecture videos or having students submit a virtual “exit ticket” of the clearest and muddiest aspects of the videos.