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On Friday May 13th I presented on “Flex Best Practices” to the DePaul University 2022 Teaching and Learning Conference. Here are my slides, video, and resources.

Slide Handouts

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Resources

Scheduling your Zoom sessions

  • Schedule a recurring meeting for your course, so that the Zoom connection details are the same for each class. You want to avoid using your Personal Meeting ID. Using the Personal Meeting ID can result in unexpected guests ending up in your Zoom meeting.
  • Only authenticated users can join. This means only students (and guests) with DePaul accounts can join the Zoom session. This can cause minor frustration for students who do not read instructions the first week. In later weeks, this provides more security and less opportunity to be Zoombombed. You can create an exception if you are bringing virtual guest speakers to class (who do not have DePaul Zoom accounts).
  • Checking the “Video On” setting is advised. Your students can actively decide to turn their webcams off but having this setting on prevents the default meeting option being webcams off.
  • Mute participants upon entry. This greatly reduces audio disruption, particularly when a student joins the class late. Students must actively unmute their microphones to talk.
  • Make sure to uncheck “Allow participants to join anytime.” Activating this setting can result in Trimodal classrooms not becoming host at the start of the Zoom session.
  • Using D2L to share the Zoom connection details with your students is recommended.
  • When joining Zoom from the classroom, you will need the Zoom Meeting ID and passcode. Adding these to your smartphone calendar is an easy way to have these details to hand.

Graphic design and use of digital whiteboards

Where possible, you want to avoid white backgrounds in your digital materials. The classroom cameras automatically adjust to brightness and will show you in silhouette if you stand in front of a white digital display. Using a dark background in your digital materials fixes this inconvenience.

DePaul’s Marketing and Communications staff have designed a PowerPoint template for Flex classes that optimizes legibility and video quality that you can download from the Brand Standards website.

If you are using the digital whiteboard in Zoom, you can activate “Dark Mode” which works like a digital blackboard.

Use of recorded class video

Your class will be automatically recorded for you, even if you are not using Zoom. A dedicated PC in the podium records directly to Panopto. The PC records what is displayed on the two video screens at the front of the room, along with room audio. The recordings are automatically added to your D2L course (inside a hidden module called “Lecture Capture”), If you keep the module hidden, your students cannot access the recordings.

To make the module visible:

  • Click on the visibility icon (it looks like an eye with a diagonal strikethrough line).
  • A visibility toggle will appear to allow you to change between “Hidden” and “Visible.”

Your class is recorded automatically based on scheduling details in Campus Connect. You will need to notify d2l@depaul.edu to have the recording schedule updated if your class meeting pattern or classroom is changed.

You can request that your course not be recorded (for the entire quarter or for a specific date) by emailing d2l@depaul.edu.

Recording your Zoom sessions to the Cloud is an option too. This provides a little more control over what is shared with your students, focusing on speaker view video (rather than gallery view video) and shared content. Zoom allows you to trim your recording before sharing with your students. These videos are automatically deleted after 120 days, but you can download the recordings and upload into D2L and Panopto if they are required for longer.

Students may not realize that their classes are recorded, so actively informing them is good practice. However, you can decide if and how these recordings are shared. A simple phrase in your syllabus is recommended: “Classes are recorded, and recordings will be posted to D2L at my discretion

Sharing class recordings can create a perverse incentive - students may be tempted to skip class and watch the recordings instead. To reduce this, you can decide what practice makes sense to you. This could be that you delay posting the recordings, or only make them available as requested.

Class webcam policies

Faculty have expressed some concern that students decide to turn off their webcams. This complicates teaching, as you no longer see how remote students are reacting as the class is being taught. For this reason, the College of Business has developed a syllabus statement which faculty can adopt and adapt in their courses.

The syllabus statement also shared some expectations on class etiquette.

However, there may be some situations where students need to turn off webcams. There are some additional practices that faculty may want to share with their students. Having a suitable Zoom faculty photo is one.

Or using Zoom avatars. The avatar provides privacy to the student, whilst providing a degree of non-verbal communication to others in the Zoom session.

Privacy-concerned students can also use virtual backgrounds to blur out or hide their workspace.

In a similar way to Zoom avatars, the filters in virtual cameras like Snap can be a fun way for remote students to engage. Allowing (appropriate) filters like these may make the process of connecting to Zoom more fun for your students.

Group work

The best advice I have for group work in Flex classes is to keep things simple.

There are three simple processes that faculty can adopt:

  1. They can decide against group work.
  2. They can have improvised weekly groups. Groups in which the members are chosen during class. With improvised groups, composition can be determined by who is remote and who is on-campus for that class.
  3. They can have the same groups each week. Here, students might alternate between remote and on-campus attendance resulting in groups that may have a mixed composition of remote and on-campus students.

These mixed groups are best served by the on-campus students clustering around a laptop running Zoom breakout sessions. If a laptop is unavailable, then a tablet or smartphone can suffice. Students can temporally relocate to a quiet place outside the physical classroom to collaborate with their group.

Faculty can utilize D2L surveys to forecast how many students who will attend class on-campus or virtually. Faculty can suggest that all on-campus students bring a laptop, tablet, or smartphone to class or pass the communication responsibility onto students, letting the groups decide in advance who will bring a suitable device to class.

In a similar way, faculty may want to bring a smartphone or laptop to class. Having a suitable device in class allows faculty to pop in and out of breakout sessions without having to rely on the classroom Zoom controls, which could be disruptive to students in the classroom.

Exams

Exams need to be equitable in Flex classes. Remote students can be anywhere in the world – in different states, countries, or time zones. With this in mind, there are some options that faculty can consider:

  1. They can decide to forego exams.
  2. They can convert exams into take-home projects, where the finished project is uploaded into the D2L Submissions folder.
  3. They can cancel a regular on-campus class and have their students take a D2L quiz. Or Gradescope can be used for a paper-based exam. With this option, there is no workable way for faculty to ensure that all academic integrity rules are upheld. These types of exams should be considered open-book.
  4. Proctored D2L quizzes can be utilized, with the assistance of CTL. However, services like Examity require a multi-day window for students to schedule their exams. For this reason, faculty are advised to allow a week-long window for their exams.

The first class

Most importantly, the first class is where faculty can set the right foundation. Students may not have a complete understanding of what a Flex class is, so dedicate some time to explanation and discussion.

  • Explain the technology
  • Show how you will teach
  • Share your expectations
  • Listen to your students’ questions

Students (and faculty) should understand that the Trimodal classroom may always be recording. Personal questions and confidences should take place outside the classroom.

Students can present remotely – sharing their screen via Zoom. This option is available to both on-campus and virtual students. This feature is extremely powerful.

Faculty should remind students that there is a webcam policy for the Flex class, and the reasons for this. This is where faculty can introduce alternatives like Zoom avatars if faculty wish to adopt these for their class.

Repeating every student’s question is one of the core best practices. This simple act both ensures that remote students hear all questions clearly (avoiding crosstalk) and provide an opportunity to pause and think before responding.

When asking questions to the class, prioritizing responses from the remote students is generally advised. The remote students typically take a little longer to respond than students in the physical classroom.
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