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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for Instructors

Information on this page is subject to change as the situation changes and new resources are developed and made available for faculty.

  • That’s ok. There are multiple options you can use to engage students during time of campus closure. Contact the CTL (ctl@humboldt.edu or 707-826-4461) for more info. 
  • We do encourage you to use Canvas because students are largely accustomed to it and you have more support options. The CTL can help you use Canvas, and other tools, in ways that fit your instructional goals. Here are a few recommendations:
    • Keep your gradebook up to date and make it available. One idea for increased access is to keep it up to date in Canvas so that your college or department could access it should the need arise. 
    • Ensure your syllabi and course materials are in Canvas courses and up to date.
    • Place your final exam or other quizzes in Canvas courses or another appropriate location.
    • Ask your Department Chair to identify people in your department who have captured lectures for your course, so you can draw upon those as necessary and appropriate.

Teaching and learning online is fundamentally different than in face-to-face environments. We encourage you to examine your expectations for the semester. On the one hand, we cannot compromise our commitment to teaching and learning excellence. On the other hand, we are in a strained context. The following questions and comments are intended to provide prompts for reflection as you enter the remaining semester. They are intended to be guides, not directives. You can connect directly with CTL staff more suggestions. They are here to help you succeed and thrive, so reach out to them. 

  • What is the essential knowledge and skills students have to have at the end of your course? Consider simplifying course completion criteria and design to those ends. 
  • If students are taking four courses, is it realistic to require that they watch hour long pre-recorded lectures? If all their courses are set up that way, they could feasibly watch up to sixteen hours of lectures in a week. Consider breaking your lectures into smaller video chunks. 
  • Should I hold synchronous or asynchronous course sessions? Humboldt is encouraging faculty to structure instruction asynchronously. There are just too many variables influencing access to instruction during this COVID-19 pandemic. Students, like us, will need maximum flexibility to succeed during this trying time.  
  • Multiple institutions across the United States are relying on Zoom for meetings and lectures. Their system is overloaded. It is currently taking up to 24 hours to save a video lecture to the cloud. Consider pre-recording your Zoom based video materials a week in advance. You could also consider other video recording tools like YouTube and Camtasia. 
  • Do you know that Canvas has a speedgrader option? Teaching online is a different type of intellectual labor. For example, the amount of reading alone can feel overwhelming at times. There are tools in Canvas that can ease that labor, and the speedgrader is one. 
  • What do I do about exams? Another way to think about it may be: What would learning look like if there were no exams? Would that compromise the intellectual rigor of the course? Consider rethinking high stakes exams for other types of assessment. The CTL can help you think this through.
  •  Develop a plan to communicate with your students in the event of a campus closure.  For example, log into the MyHumboldt Faculty Center and download your rosters so you can email and communicate with your students.
  • Plan how to adjust teaching and learning expectations. From course policies related to class attendance to assignments and assessments, you may wish to rethink what is essential for students to know, understand, and demonstrate by the end of the course.
  • Plan for a reliable method to remotely collect and submit final grades.
  • Canvas provides multiple ways to contact students; the easiest is the Inbox which also retains an archive of the messages sent to students. For support materials, visit the Canvas Guide on Inbox.
  • Outside of Canvas, instructors can download student emails in class rosters from the MyHumboldt Faculty Center and use traditional email to maintain communication with students. Students should be encouraged to check their email accounts regularly.
  • There are several options. Consider Canvas or GoogleDrive where students can easily find course materials. Whatever you choose, we recommend you use it consistently in order for your students to know exactly where to access their materials.
  • The simple answer is, contact the CTL. We can help you set up simple and practical approaches for assessing learning. For example, instructors can use Canvas for quizzes, tests, and to collect and grade final exams and assignments. For support materials, visit the Canvas Guide on Quizzes and the Canvas Guide on Assignments.
  • Yes you can. You can host live Zoom meetings. Here are a few tutorials that guide you through the process of hosting Zoom meetings. 
  • Begin with going to Humboldt's Zoom login page. See Humboldt Zoom Guides.
  • Faculty are encouraged to take advantage of campus provided learning and teaching technologies to ensure the environments are secure, accessible, and supported for faculty and students.  
  • Contacts:

The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects, among many things, student information. Multiple institutions across the country have expressed concerns about possible FERPA violations when meetings with students are being recorded (zoom, google hangouts, etc).  It is important for instructors to think about whether or not their use of a technology is FERPA compliant. For example, if an instructor is using Zoom and is not recording a meeting with students (e.g. synchronous class meeting), then the instructor’s use of Zoom is compliant. If, however, the meeting is recorded, then it may be in violation of FERPA policies. 
 

FERPA does not prevent or require written consent for its usage when 

  1. instructors use university-supported systems (Zoom, Camtasia, Google Meet) to record their class sessions/lectures for the purpose of student learning and 
  2. use their Canvas course to limit access to the recording to the members of the course from which it originated and 
  3. access to course recordings is limited to the semester the course is held.
     

We recommend that instructors use the Zoom/Canvas integration to schedule their zoom meetings from within their Canvas course to ensure that only the appropriate group of people have access to the recordings during the duration of that one semester. Students who do not wish to be recorded can turn off their video and/or change their username as the session is being recorded.  Instructors can remind the students that the recording should be limited to only the members of the course. If the students share the recordings outside of this context then it becomes a student conduct scenario.

Here are some questions a department chair can ask their instructors to help determine whether or not it is FERPA compliant:

  1. What is the purpose of these recordings? Is it to enhance student learning?  
    1. Yes, then move forward.
    2. No, then it could be a FERPA violation.
  2. Who is the intended subject of these recordings? Is the focus on the instructor and their course content, as shared during a lecture, or is the focus on the students and their interactions? 
    1. If the focus is on the instructor and course content, then move forward. 
    2. If the focus is on student interactions, then it could be a FERPA violation.
  3. Have students been given strategies to remain anonymous in the recordings if they prefer?
    1. Yes, then move forward.
    2. No, then it could be a FERPA violation.
  4. Who is the intended audience and what is the method for distribution of these recordings to that audience? Is access to the recording limited to the class from which it originated? 
    1. If the audience is for enrolled students in that course, then move forward.
    2. If the audience is for anyone else, then it could be a FERPA violation.
  5. Has the instructor taken care to protect the privacy of the student educational rights and privacy, such as through the password protected environment within Canvas?
    1. Yes, then move forward.
    2. No, then it could be a FERPA violation.

The Library is here to support you and your students. We have developed a Continuity Planning libguide that outlines resources and services that the Library is providing as we make the transition to online. Check this guide regularly for updates as more information becomes available. 

 

Many of you have inquired about textbook access for students. Below are a few updates we can share in regard to textbooks:  

 

  • The library has been contacting textbook publishers and many are giving us limited access to ebook textbooks. Please check our faculty page on the Continuity Planning libguide for updates on electronic access for textbooks. You may contact the publisher of your textbook directly, or you can email us and we will work with you. 
  • We're working hard to provide links to electronic versions of textbooks. The Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) will also scan up to 15% of a textbook for you, which they can e-mail to you as a PDF or upload directly to Canvas. You can make eBook purchase requests and/or text section scan request here: eBook & Textbook Section Scan Request
  • You can see the list of textbooks we have on reserve for students on our Course Reserves page. Some database providers are increasing the number of titles we have access to temporarily, which can be found in our OneSearch catalog. 
  • Due to publisher restrictions and funding limitations, it may not be possible to obtain an electronic version of your text. Please contact librarians@humboldt.edu with your request, and we will investigate options.

 

In addition to information on textbooks, the Continuity Planning libguide contains information on resources for students as well as requesting information literacy instruction. Please let us know what questions you have and how we can help you going forward.