Remote Teaching: Cameras

Instructors teaching remotely regularly comment that students have their cameras off. As with laptops in the face to face classroom where instructors may have to tell students to close them from time to time, in the remote class instructors may have to tell students to turn their cameras on for particularly parts of the class.

As part of setting expectations, instructors should establish ground rules for cameras. Something like having them on at the start and end of every day, during breakout rooms, in one on one meetings, etc.. The intention being to ensure that students are physically present in the class and are engaging in the activities going on.

Setting those ground rules does mean that instructors will need to follow up on students that keep their cameras off during the designated times. This could mean calling on the student to answer a question, or just asking the student to turn on the camera to engage. Having the ground rule does no good if it is not followed up on.

Nexus: Course Evaluations

Beginning with programs starting in Winter 2023, course evaluations will be done directly from the individual course sites. Students will see reminder on the course home page and the course calendar. The evaluations will be under the Communications tab on the ribbon bar, under surveys.

(Programs that started before January 2023 still have the course evaluations as a link out of Nexus from the program Nexus site, not the course site.)

On the last day of classes, instructors should provide students with an opportunity to complete the course evaluation. Never before a break, nor lunch, nor end of day; at those times, students rush them. Instead, take time when back from lunch or a break to have them completed. Remind students that they are anonymous and are not shared with instructors until after grades are completed.

There is no need to leave the room. Busy yourself with setting up for the next activity or lesson, and give the class 10 – 12 minutes to complete the evaluations.

Evaluations are not the sole determinant in future contracts, but they do form a part of looking at an instructor’s performance. Having a good size sample of student evaluations helps to look at the validity of the responses provided.