EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
On Friday, October 2, 11:15 am - 12:05 pm, in Memorial Classroom
Building, Room 212, I will be demonstrating and documenting HOW TO
RECORD YOUR LECTURES AND MAKE THEM AVAILABLE ON BLACKBOARD. With the
high incidence of influenza like illnesses, I encourage you to learn
how to do this. It will help students who are out with the flu from
falling behind or, worse, coming to class and spreading their illness.
To sign up, go to http://www.iacmiami.org/ and register for the "Audio
recording your lectures" event. For those of you teaching at that
time, or out with the flu(?), we will be recording the session so you
can watch it on-line.
MORE DETAILS AND RELATED INFORMATION
What are you doing to adjust your courses for the high incidence of
influenza like illnesses this year? Are you making adjustments so
that students who are asked to stay out of classes for up to five days
won't fall behind? Are you giving them the opportunity to continue to
make progress in the course while they are out? I hear reports of
students who are sick coming to classes because it is the only way
they can get the information and find out what is going on. That is
not something that we want happening.
There are a few general rules that you should think about.
1. Keep the syllabus on-line and up to date.
2. Keep the students aware of all assignments.
3. Open your communication channels so that students can ask questions
and get clarifications without attending class, if they are out
because of illness.
4. Provide a way for students to get the information provided during
class, even if they are out because of illness.
Most of these are easy to do.
1. Put your syllabus on Blackboard. If there are changes because of
the flu season, update the syllabus and post the new version on
Blackboard. Students will always know where to go to find the current
copy. Any time that you update it, make an Announcement in Blackboard
and check the box to send the announcement via e-mail to all your
students.
2. Use the Assignments area in Blackboard to list all the assignments
in the class. If there are changes or clarifications, modify the item
for that assignment and, as above, create an Announcement and send it
to all the students.
3. Share your e-mail address with your students and tell them how
often you will be checking it. You might want to make a new e-mail
account on Gmail just for your class messages and tell your students
that they should use that address for class related e-mail. Then
check once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the
evening. That way it won't interfere with all your other
communications but they will still be able to reach you and will know
when to expect some sort of reply.
4. To provide classroom information to students who are out sick, you
can post lecture notes or PowerPoint handouts on Blackboard. BUT WHAT
YOU SAY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT IS ON THE SLIDES. In order to
capture what you say, it is easy to record your lecture, convert the
file to the correct format, and post it on Blackboard. If you would
like to start doing this, let me know. I am scheduled to do a
demonstration on Friday, Oct. 2, 11:15 am - 12:05 pm, in Memorial
Classroom Building, Room 312. If you are going to attend this, please
register by going to http://www.iacmiami.org/ and signing up for the
"Recording Your Class Lectures" session.
Bill Vilberg
