Remote Teaching – Getting Those Cameras On

When teaching on Zoom, instructors are often faced with a screen of black boxes with no cameras. I find this frustrating and work hard to get the students to turn on their cameras.

I start on day one of the course by laying the ground rules. In my class, that means having your camera on as much as possible during the ‘lecture’ portion, and it is mandatory to have your camera on during breakout sessions or when speaking in large group sessions. That does not always work but it is my starting point.

When asking for someone to audibly respond to a question or for someone to audibly expand on a comment in the Zoom chat, I phrase it as ‘unmute yourself, turn on your camera, and ….’. Trying to get speakers to be visible as much as possible.

I have also done parts where I start the morning or afternoon by asking the group to turn their cameras on so I can see the whole class. I do that before sharing screen, trying to look around and see everyone – which in some cases is the only time I will ever meet them! I repeat the exercise before lunch and before the end of the day, looking to talk in general with no screen share, just cameras.

Of course, some students still will not put on their cameras, but it’s an attempt.

What about you? What do you do to encourage cameras use in remote classes? Post your comments so we can share with the team.

Generative AI and Academic Work

This past month we held a lunch and learn session to talk about generative AI and its use in school work. This is a hot topic, with the field of AI changing every month.

Artificial intelligence has been around for quite awhile, and most of us use it every day without realizing it. Those spelling and grammar prompts in Word? That’s AI. Those suggestions for wording when you draft an email? That’s AI. Generative AI goes further than just suggestions though, ask the program a question and it creates a response for you. This is the type of AI that causes problems in course work. Some students have used generative AI such as ChatGPT or Grammarly to produce a response to an assignment question rather than write their own submission.

The University has adopted a policy that instructors set the rules on the use of generative AI in a classroom, with the default being that if it is not mentioned it is not allowed. In all PACE developed courses, this is addressed in the assignment instructions with a note that generative AI is not allowed. Instructors teaching non-developed courses should follow that practice as well. In all courses, instructors would do well to build time before the first assignment to talk about generative AI and where it fits in the course.

One aspect of the policy that instructors may find surprising is on the use of programs to check for AI use. The University does not allow these programs for two reasons. First, these programs are currently producing a high rate of false positives; using that result to base an suspicion of misconduct is to likely to be false. Secondly, these programs keep a copy of the materials submitted. Students have not agreed to have their material shared beyond the course. It is an extension of the copyright laws, these written works are owned by the students, submitted for a specific purpose. Sharing with an AI website is not one of them.

Instructors should log into the PACE Nexus Instructor Communication Portal and check out the recording from the lunch and learn. Handouts from the session are also available with the link to the recording.

Nexus Tip: Assigned Classrooms

In the Nexus PACE Instructor Communication Portal, there is a list of all classrooms by intake so that instructors can check where they are teaching.

Under the content tab is a folder labelled Classrooms. The classrooms are listed along with the cohort that uses that room.

Our full-time groups operate on a cohort model and use the same classroom each time that they come. The one exception is for the communication courses which are broken down into smaller groups. Otherwise, the group uses the same room each day.

All classrooms have a workstation for instructors, whiteboards, and a projector or Smartboard. This information is listed on the classroom page in Nexus.