Is this a good idea?

[HappilyTenured]

Hello everyone,

So I will be teaching a course this Fall (in person) on a week evening to more than a hundred undergraduate students. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to video/audio record the content of the course and make it available for all students.

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

Your thoughts? Is this a good idea?

[dismalist]

'Twould be like making class notes available to the students. They won't show up for class.

[marshwiggle]

Hello everyone,

So I will be teaching a course this Fall (in person) on a week evening to more than a hundred undergraduate students. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to video/audio record the content of the course and make it available for all students.

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

Your thoughts? Is this a good idea?

If it's an alternative to coming to class, many will likely choose it. Whether that's good or bad depends on your expectations.

[lightning]

Hello everyone,

So I will be teaching a course this Fall (in person) on a week evening to more than a hundred undergraduate students. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to video/audio record the content of the course and make it available for all students.

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

Your thoughts? Is this a good idea?

Do you like making more work for yourself than is necessary? If so, knock yourself out.

That being said, if you don't have a teaching assistant that is allowed to fill in for you if you are absent on a trip (or just absent for some other reason), making videos and using them as a replacement for a live class that you know you will miss is a great idea.

[poiuy]

How long is the class?  Is it a 50 minute block or more?  How many days a week do you meet? 
And what level of undergraduate? Do you have a Teaching Assistant?

If you pre-tape lecture content, you will have to ensure that there are closed captions or transcripts available because ADA.

In any case, if you provide taped class lectures, what will you do in the class?  Repeat the same material?  That way, there is no point in students showing up. 

If you want to do a flipped class - pre-taped lectures that students access ahead of time, followed by in-class applied activities - that is a different and expanded planning and execution process. But flipped classes are effective and often popular.

If you decide to do this, you could spend some in-person class time reinforcing and clarifying the lecture content, and then move to applied activities.

If you have a good Teaching Resource Center (or similar) for faculty on your campus, they might be helpful in class design and planning details, in the context of your University's rules and expectations.

[downer]

53 responses on Reddit, 4 here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Professors/comments/wiq02p/is_this_a_good_idea/

[the_geneticist]

I assume the course will involve a lot of student-student interaction, small group discussions, and other activities? You can't replicate that by watching a recording.  If someone is absent, they can get notes from a classmate.  And as others have said, you would need permission to record the folks in the room.  Lots of places got lax about FERPA for Zoom classes, you don't want to be the test case for litigation.
Just teach it "live".

[artalot]

The large class size for such complex material is not ideal, so I can see why you can to provide space for students to process. That said, I think that complex, disturbing and uncomfortable ideas are better dealt with in person. Students aren't always able to process and understand these concepts on their own.
I would focus your efforts on establishing community and trust so that students can use class time to discuss the material. This may mean recording some lecture content ahead of time so that students can use class time to meet in small groups, but I don't think it's a good idea to allow the recordings to substitute for class.

[HappilyTenured]

Hello everyone,

So I will be teaching a course this Fall (in person) on a week evening to more than a hundred undergraduate students. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to video/audio record the content of the course and make it available for all students.

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

Your thoughts? Is this a good idea?

I won't do it, it's a recipe for low attendance.

[Caracal]

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

I think this would only make sense if you decide that everyone is going to listen to the lecture outside of class and in class you are going to do something else. Showing up at a particular time and place is going to be inconvenient to varying degrees to most people and all kinds of content might be upsetting. If the benefits of having class meetings don't outweigh these inherent disadvantages, then the class might as well be online and asynchronous.

If I had the option to not show up to teach class everyday-with no immediate or obvious inconveniences or repercussions-I probably wouldn't be there very often.

[Puget]

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

I think this would only make sense if you decide that everyone is going to listen to the lecture outside of class and in class you are going to do something else. Showing up at a particular time and place is going to be inconvenient to varying degrees to most people and all kinds of content might be upsetting. If the benefits of having class meetings don't outweigh these inherent disadvantages, then the class might as well be online and asynchronous.

If I had the option to not show up to teach class everyday-with no immediate or obvious inconveniences or repercussions-I probably wouldn't be there very often.

This, but DON'T try to flip a fall class now! Flipping my big class took a full summer of work. Doing recorded lectures right (you really can't just talk extemporaneously like you would live-- these are horrible to watch) and developing all the in class assignments and guided discussion are both extremely time consuming. In the end it was worth doing I think, but you need to plan at least a semester in advance to do this, and budget plenty of time for it.

[downer]

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

I think this would only make sense if you decide that everyone is going to listen to the lecture outside of class and in class you are going to do something else. Showing up at a particular time and place is going to be inconvenient to varying degrees to most people and all kinds of content might be upsetting. If the benefits of having class meetings don't outweigh these inherent disadvantages, then the class might as well be online and asynchronous.

If I had the option to not show up to teach class everyday-with no immediate or obvious inconveniences or repercussions-I probably wouldn't be there very often.

This, but DON'T try to flip a fall class now! Flipping my big class took a full summer of work. Doing recorded lectures right (you really can't just talk extemporaneously like you would live-- these are horrible to watch) and developing all the in class assignments and guided discussion are both extremely time consuming. In the end it was worth doing I think, but you need to plan at least a semester in advance to do this, and budget plenty of time for it.

That kind of flipping sounds very work intensive. It would only be worth it if there was strong reason to believe you will be able to teach the flipped course on a regular basis.

Is it feasible to teach a few flipped classes during a regular semester? Maybe each semester adding a few to the collection of flipped classes if you teach it regularly?

[Caracal]

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

I think this would only make sense if you decide that everyone is going to listen to the lecture outside of class and in class you are going to do something else. Showing up at a particular time and place is going to be inconvenient to varying degrees to most people and all kinds of content might be upsetting. If the benefits of having class meetings don't outweigh these inherent disadvantages, then the class might as well be online and asynchronous.

If I had the option to not show up to teach class everyday-with no immediate or obvious inconveniences or repercussions-I probably wouldn't be there very often.

This, but DON'T try to flip a fall class now! Flipping my big class took a full summer of work. Doing recorded lectures right (you really can't just talk extemporaneously like you would live-- these are horrible to watch) and developing all the in class assignments and guided discussion are both extremely time consuming. In the end it was worth doing I think, but you need to plan at least a semester in advance to do this, and budget plenty of time for it.

That kind of flipping sounds very work intensive. It would only be worth it if there was strong reason to believe you will be able to teach the flipped course on a regular basis.

Is it feasible to teach a few flipped classes during a regular semester? Maybe each semester adding a few to the collection of flipped classes if you teach it regularly?

It also might not be necessary. If it's a long class, I'd try to cut down on the lecture and break it up with group work. There may be things you could have students do in class that wouldn't be possible in a normal length class and you can get people moving around and try to keep them engaged.

[mamselle]

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

I think this would only make sense if you decide that everyone is going to listen to the lecture outside of class and in class you are going to do something else. Showing up at a particular time and place is going to be inconvenient to varying degrees to most people and all kinds of content might be upsetting. If the benefits of having class meetings don't outweigh these inherent disadvantages, then the class might as well be online and asynchronous.

If I had the option to not show up to teach class everyday-with no immediate or obvious inconveniences or repercussions-I probably wouldn't be there very often.

This, but DON'T try to flip a fall class now! Flipping my big class took a full summer of work. Doing recorded lectures right (you really can't just talk extemporaneously like you would live-- these are horrible to watch) and developing all the in class assignments and guided discussion are both extremely time consuming. In the end it was worth doing I think, but you need to plan at least a semester in advance to do this, and budget plenty of time for it.

I'm going over right now to see if you posted your steps on this in the 'flipped class' thread that was running pre-Covid.

If not, that might be a very useful bit of input, especially the differences you found between 'just talking extemporaneously' and doing a recorded lecture that works well. (Working towards a couple of new projects that may end up taking this form, so I'm suddenly very interested...)

M.

[Puget]

I consider doing this primarily to accommodate those who will struggle to listen at that time of the day (and with so many people in the same room). Additionally, the course's content can trigger some students (it's a course on gender-based violence), and I want to give them the option to listen to the lecture whenever they feel comfortable doing so.

I think this would only make sense if you decide that everyone is going to listen to the lecture outside of class and in class you are going to do something else. Showing up at a particular time and place is going to be inconvenient to varying degrees to most people and all kinds of content might be upsetting. If the benefits of having class meetings don't outweigh these inherent disadvantages, then the class might as well be online and asynchronous.

If I had the option to not show up to teach class everyday-with no immediate or obvious inconveniences or repercussions-I probably wouldn't be there very often.

This, but DON'T try to flip a fall class now! Flipping my big class took a full summer of work. Doing recorded lectures right (you really can't just talk extemporaneously like you would live-- these are horrible to watch) and developing all the in class assignments and guided discussion are both extremely time consuming. In the end it was worth doing I think, but you need to plan at least a semester in advance to do this, and budget plenty of time for it.

That kind of flipping sounds very work intensive. It would only be worth it if there was strong reason to believe you will be able to teach the flipped course on a regular basis.

Is it feasible to teach a few flipped classes during a regular semester? Maybe each semester adding a few to the collection of flipped classes if you teach it regularly?

Do you mean individual class days? Sure, that would be a smart way to do it gradually. My hand was rather forced by the first pandemic year -- it was the only way could figure out how to make my big course work as hybrid in a way that wasn't deadly boring and ineffective. I teach the class every year, so I'm now glad to have it done (though I keep refining things), but in the normal course of events doing it more gradually would probably be better.