Week 3 and the 1st years are asking if they have to come to lectures, they’d rather watch the recordings

[CameForAVacationStayedForTheRevolution]

🙈🙈🙈🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

OMG, and during lock down students (and the majority of parents on MN) complained about online lectures and poor value for money due to lack of face to face on campus lectures. Lots of complaints after lockdown when it was a bit of a hybrid model for a year.

And now here we are with some students saying they’d rather not drive into town for lectures when they could watch them from home. Bearing in mind on our course our “lectures” are more of a lecture/seminar hybrid as it’s a small cohort so it’s not death by PowerPoint. There are group activities, etc, interactive stuff, quizes, etc. Trying to explain to them that discussion occurs at a better level when people are actually there in person as well! People are more likely to ask questions when not online.

Honestly, I’m baffled sometimes! I get it would save money in petrol and parking as well as less time if you don’t have to commute in but I never press ganged anyone to sign up for the course!

This was what DH’s department found: the few students who were accessing the recordings turned out to be the ones who went to the lectures, and they were watching them again to check bits they hadn’t understood.

I’m going to have to investigate if I can tell who has watched the recordings.

Totally feel your pain @CameForAVacationStayedForTheRevolution

I remember (many name changes ago) the utter vituperation of pushy MN parents about universities cheating and lying during the lockdown.

They’ll never believe their little darlings are not perfect scholars!

I do lots of interactive stuff in lectures and I’m thinking of pausing the automatic lecture capture (yes we live in Soviet conditions ) to tell them what’s in the exam.

Of course I’d be severely disciplined by staff who’ve never been in a lecture theatre let alone taught undergrads

I circulate a register. I’m thinking of reading it out next week to get them to say they’re in the room.

Her ILP says ‘her personal tutor will make face to face contact with her every week’ as she has trouble advocating for herself.

Does she attend his lectures or go to his office hours?

If not, that’s on her.

Ds1 did this attended the lecture but then watched the video too.

Ds2 met his personal tutor who basically said I don't want to see you unless you are thinking of dropping out. Appalling "support" at a very top ranking uni luckily his department is really good with office hours for questions and feedback. He attended every single lecture in person last year and watched 200 dwindle down to 17 attending by the end of first year. It is a campus uni, they are literally within a 15 minute walking distance from halls to lectures. It is pathetic.

Ds2 also moved halfway through a 2 hour lecture when they had a break as the 3 people next to him were watching cricket on their laptops and making notes from the lecture on their phones. These are the same type of people he did group projects with. He hates group projects because no one cares and it tanks his personal grade. Ds1 had the same issue with apathetic group project students.

I think students should have to scan their ID on entry to their lecture which is what mine had to do in sixth form. I am sure some universities in the US allow parents to see their children's attendance and grades for their papers. I am sure it is with the consent of the child because they would be over 18 but parents are funding this, in the UK too. It is expected of us.

Remind them that in person attendance is mandatory and failure to attend (100% unless ill?) result in a course fail.

We take a register and they know we do. They know that attendance is monitored. They were clearly told on open days, at interviews and day one that it’s 100% mandatory attendance.

I’ve got 4 students started down a disciplinary pathway already (not first years) for attendance issues and I know there will be no consequences of any matter for them . In fact the person who has the most consequences is probably me due to the time taken to have a meeting with each student and complete paperwork.

And just how is her tutor supposed to do that?

Will she answer an email? If her tutor emailed to say, Come to my office at 1pm every Tuesday would she turn up?

or do you want her tutor to knock on her bedroom door in halls?

it sounds like she’s not ready or indeed healthy enough to be at university. Tne ILP is unreasonable and puts too heavy a load on already overworked academic staff who’ve never are NOT therapists. University isn’t therapy.

I think students should have to scan their ID on entry to their lecture which is what mine had to do in sixth form.

My students have to do this, there’s an ID card scan point in every lecture theatre.

Absolutely. management will wipe the floor with you if you do not keep people on at all costs. Put in whatever is needed to get them through. Bums on seats = desperately needed cash sadly.

Can you record lecture and then state than anyone who wants the recording must email with a good reason as to why they need the recording/missed the lecture.
Explain to them as you’ve said above about it being a professional healthcare course. Appreciate that it might generate more work but may be a good balance if having recording available but deterrent to those choosing not to attend.

Tbh it's not your responsibility.
I wouldn't do a lot. Teach the class and that's it.

You might as well send them all 3 years of course notes, and the recorded lectures from previous years, and take some time off.

At my place, lecture capture is automatically controlled via the central timetable feeding through teaching room technology.

And then we had do-called experts tell us we had to record seminars for “accessibity” purposes. We flatly refused and got an emotionally blackmailing speech about how the mental health of staff in student counselling was constantly under pressure.

These are people who have never taught at a university and rarely even qualified above a Bachelor’s degree. Telling staff with decades of experience how to teach.

Aand academic staff rarely have the “take a day off for my mental health” option.

It’s disgraceful and universities currently pander to ill-prepared students and their unreasonable demands.

I note I’ve still not had an answer about how a tutor is supposed to see a student if the student is incapable of attending classes.

@KnickerlessParsons indeed - the lecture format is dead and will inevitably take two directions - one as you describe with various amounts of forum support, a format which already has some traction - and another focussing on smaller in person or at least real time, interactive seminar style flipped learning. The former will be cheap and the latter very expensive and exclusive.

My cousin’s DH is a university professor.
He says he’s fed up of giving live lectures to black screens because all the students turn their cameras off. He doesn’t even know if they are there or not. And says it’s rare that someone asks a question. He’s retirement age, and is considering retirement, just because of this.

@ParmaVioletTea centrally automated lecture capture has been planned here for some time but mercifully has been problematic due to various pockets of resistance and inadequate infrastructure. We have flatly refused recording anything more interactive, and that is supported as also safeguarding students. Some lectures are also not recorded if the content is deemed too controversial sensitive.

I'm sick to death of having new recoding IT systems every year to deal with.

I can’t see flipped learning working. We tried it with one module and nobody did the pre session reading and work, well maybe a small number. Which is worse, because some people have and some people haven’t and then nobody can do the in session work cohesively . you end up rattling through what they need to know which annoys the ones who have done the work.

They complain if they think sessions are too didactic, they complain about being expected to do any reading, they complain about group work and PBL type stuff 🙈. Not all of them, some are very hard working. As always it’s a vocal minority and I try to remember that or it just gets a bit depressing!

That would work 😂

I don’t think so, not only would it be too much work for me but the recordings are automatically uploaded to the VLE and are expected to be there for all students for reasons of inclusivity and accessibility.

We had lectures, which I sometimes struggled to follow as my attention wandered and I felt like I was just listening to someone droning on for 2 hours, so I would have loved a recording that I could rewind. I enjoyed seminars though and felt I learned so much more. I definitely enjoyed attending those and I would have though recording them would be an almost futile practise.

@CameForAVacationStayedForTheRevolution oh indeed this is an annoying problem. But it does depend on the context. It's the entire basis of the Oxbridge supervision system which is currently only feasible because supervisions are paid by colleges, not the university. not all students comply all the time but most do and those that don't - generally still do OK!

You had 2 hour lectures? 😮

We have some 2 hour lectures - terrible idea. Way back in time - I recall having weekly 4 hour lectures where I took my lunch and hid it under the bench.