Dear colleagues,

After so much planning, training, working and reworking course material, the Fall 2020 semester is upon us. We are ready, and our students are ready. I am going to divert from my usually long list of updates, resources, and training links to focus here on the first day of class.

First, a thank you to Mary Murphy-Phillips and the entire team in Graduate Student Life, who worked tirelessly to deliver an exciting orientation program to prepare our enthusiastic, passionate, and dedicated incoming students to begin their public health training. Her team also held a webinar to prepare continuing students for a different campus experience, and they too are ready and excited to return.

Second, before we get to the first day, I suggest thoroughly reviewing our LfA at SPH guide and the LfA at SPH checklist. These are our most up-to-date and comprehensive resources. Please bookmark the link to the LfA page as we continue to add important resources.

And now to the first day of class.

Before the class begins, be sure to set up a Zoom link for your class session and share the link with the class in advance so the remote students can join. Set the start of the session 15 minutes before class starts (e.g, 1:45 for a 2 PM start) so you can test the Zoom link in advance. The on-campus students will also use the link to participate in break-out sessions or small group work during class time. Remind the students who are attending in person to fully charge their laptops and phones, and to bring headphones or earbuds to class.

Arrive at the classroom a few minutes early to orient yourself to the technology. It is best to bring your materials on a flash drive (or pull them from Blackboard) and use the podium computer, rather than a personal computer, as the camera and speakers are connected to the podium computer. Staff from Ed Media will make the rounds to check in on faculty at the start of class. Have your teaching assistant or course moderator log into the Zoom session to be sure things are working.

You should use the lavelier microphone in the classroom. This will make for better sound quality for the remote students.

Open your powerpoint slides or other documents on the podium laptop and share your screen so that the remote students can see what you project in the classroom. Your teaching assistant or course moderator, logged into the Zoom session, can verify that materials are projecting and that you, too, can be seen by those joining remotely. The web camera mounted on a tripod will be on the podium directed at you, so the remote students will see you in the Zoom gallery along with the slides or other materials being projected in the classroom. You will be able to walk around in front of the class, but note that if you go too far, you may walk out of the camera shot.

When you begin class, be sure to start the recording in Zoom. Click the record button at the bottom of the Zoom screen and choose record to the cloud. Notice the red button in the center of the cloud in the top left corner of the Zoom screen—this indicates that the recording has started. If you want to pause or stop the recording for any reason, click on the record button. You can start recording again using the same sequence of steps. If you mistakenly stop recording, that is no problem, just start again.  After the class you will receive a link to the recording in your email, which you can post to Blackboard.

During class, you will engage with students in the room and those joining remotely. Approximately half of students surveyed with the new Student Cohort app have indicated a preference for attending classes this week in person, on campus. The Student Cohort app will randomly select students to be in each class if more than the number allowed have requested that option. You can check the status of your class here. Note that the Student Cohort app surveyed student preferences for classes starting this week (September 2-4). Preferences of students whose classes start next week will be available on Friday afternoon.

There will be issues. Expect them and roll with them. If you are having trouble with any of the technology or your students are in need of technical assistance in the classroom, call Ed Media at 617-358-1111. Make a plan to check in with your teaching assistant or course moderator regularly (e.g., every 15 minutes) to be sure that things are going smoothly for the remote students.

While there are lots of things that you can do with Zoom and other technologies, including break-outs, polling, and annotation, just do what is comfortable, especially on the first day. Students are joining the class to hear from you. You can add in other features later on. If something doesn’t work well, so be it. Move on to something else. If the recent months have taught us anything, we have to be flexible. Just breathe, cover what you can, and be kind to yourselves. This is all new and different, and stressful. But you are not alone.

Remember, our students will long remember not just what you taught them, but who you are and how you interacted with them.  We are ready and can do this.

Thank you for all of your hard work and preparation to get to this point. It is truly a privilege to work with such dedicated faculty and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to always learn from and with you. Wishing everyone a smooth start to the semester.

Please join us for the next LfA Teaching Series meeting on September 10 at 1 PM.

Sincerely,

Lisa

Lisa Sullivan
Associate Dean for Education
lsull@bu.edu

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