ONLINE EXPERIENCE Sharing Expectations - Policies and Procedures

In a HyFlex Course it is important to define expectations and responsibilities upfront as much as possible. By communicating expectations early and often, you not only ensure learners understand what to do in the course and with assignments, but you also set a supportive tone. Learners can become overwhelmed by a course site with no direction or explanation. Providing sufficient instructions and clearly detailing learner expectations can offset that anxiety.

Course Syllabus & Schedule

Having an organized, approachable, and accessible syllabus helps to set a positive tone for the course and support learners’ confidence in you as the instructor. The online, hybrid, HyFlex course syllabus is similar to a well-structured traditional syllabus with a few modifications. The differences center on the need for it to be clearly written, well organized, readable, and complete. Try to write your syllabus in a conversational tone while keeping things simple and straightforward.

Make sure to include the following information:

- Clearly identify the technology required to participate in various modes.
  - - Do learners need other personal technology in the classroom, such as a laptop or tablet computer?
    - Do learners need headsets to participate in synchronous online mode?
    - How are learners in the synchronous online mode expected to contribute to class – text chat or audio?
- Clearly describe the expectations and requirements for each assignment or instructional activity across the three modalities (F2F, Synchronous Online, and Asynchronous Online). Activities in each mode often overlap, reusing learning resources, activities, and assessments for all learners when possible and practical, but in total, they are typically not the same activities for learners in all participation modes.

Explore this robust Syllabus Template, which includes recommended language for many sections as well as the required University-Wide policies.

Office Hours

Per the Butler University Faculty Handbook, “faculty members are expected to hold at least one office hour for each three hours of scheduled instruction, or instructional equivalent.” All instructors are required to inform learners of the times they will be available for office hours.

You are not expected to be available 24/7, even for your online learners. When you determine your office hours, think about where your learners are located and if they work full-time. If they are located across different time zones, it might be beneficial to offer staggered office hours throughout the week rather than using the same time every day (for example 9-10a on Tuesdays, 5-6p on Thursdays, and 11a-1p on Mondays). Be sure to include the time zone when specifying times - this is especially important if your learners are non-traditional or live across multiple time zones.

In addition to stating when you will be available, you may also want to explicitly communicate when you will NOT be available (and why, if relevant). For example, if you teach a class from 9-11:30a on Tues/Thurs in addition to teaching your online course, let the learners in your other courses know that you will not be available on those dates/times.

Canvas Calendar Appointments

You can set-up your office hours within the Canvas Calendar. Using the scheduler feature, learners will be able to sign-up for appointment times in their own Canvas Calendars. You should also consider the format of your office hours and the impact of social distancing. To closely replicate the face-to-face experience of one-on-one meetings, it is recommended that you make use of Zoom video conferencing.

The following video tutorials will walk you through the process:

- - Advising: Setting up Zoom meeting - CAT recorded training
  - Advising: Creating Sign up times in Canvas - CAT recorded training
  - Advising: How Students Sign Up - CAT recorded training

Attendance & Participation

In traditional courses, it is common practice to take attendance or allocate points for participation. It's fairly straightforward - learners show up for class, they pay attention, they may speak up in a class discussion or work in a small group. Many times this grade is not determined until the end of the semester. Attendance and participation are much more difficult to assess in online or hybrid courses (and "attendance" is discouraged as a measure in online courses). HyFlex courses provide flexibility in how learners participate and interact in the course (face-to face, synchronous online, and asynchronous online). Due to social distancing requirements, potential future stay-at-home orders, and accommodating learners who become ill, there could be a significant imbalance in the numbers of learners participating in each mode.

Requiring attendance at X number (or x%) of in-person or synchronous online sessions may not be feasible. You will need to ensure that all references to weekly course meetings, in-class activities, and participation grades are modified appropriately.

Attendance

Taking attendance in a HyFlex course is only possible for in-person and synchronous online sessions. With learners potentially scattered across the country in different time zones plus bandwidth and technology limitations, requiring attendance for synchronous sessions is currently strongly discouraged. For larger class sizes, it can also become quite onerous to track attendance during synchronous Zoom sessions.

Participation

Setting reasonable, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-monitor expectations for participation in HyFlex courses is often a crucial step to get and keep learners engaged. Making participation interesting, authentic, and clearly tied to student learning outcomes can improve learner motivation to participate and engage. Participation in an online course is very different from participation in an in-person course. The most direct comparison would be to synchronous sessions. However, if synchronous sessions are not required, then it becomes difficult to assess learner participation fairly and equitably.

Example

A learner in your class is unable to attend half of the in-person/synchronous sessions because s/he is helping to take care of younger siblings while their parents are working alternating shifts at a hospital. This learner watches the recordings later the same day and completes all required assignments for the course. If participation is described as actively engaging in in-person or synchronous sessions, what kind of participation grade will this learner receive?

Instead, participation should be embedded within the instructions and rubrics for asynchronous assignments and instructional activities – like discussion forums, group projects, and presentations. When properly integrated within individual assignments, a separate grade for participation is not needed for online courses.

Example

For the following discussion forum rubric, participation is addressed in both the Contribution to Learning Community and the Required Postings/Timeliness criteria.

Screenshot of Non-Weighted Discussion Forum rubric built in Canvas. The rubric has 5 criteria: 1) Ideas, Arguments, & Analysis, 2) Connection to the Course Materials, 3) Contribution to the Learning Community, 4) Writing Quality, and 5) Required Postings/Timeliness. It is a single point value rubric ranging from 3-0 points. Full descriptions are provided for all levels of each criterion.

Netiquette & Disruptive Learners

The following YouTube Video (6:13 min) addresses Netiquette and why it is important for online and hybrid courses.

In online modalities, inappropriate behavior may be harder to spot and harder to combat due to the text-based nature of most communication. Disruptive learners in an online course include those who dominate discussion forums or Zoom meetings. It also includes those who are rude to other learners or use inappropriate language.

To de-escalate:

- Be careful of your tone – especially in writing
- Use “I” statements rather than “You” statements
- Use clear, concise language

If a learner’s behavior goes beyond simply disruptive or rude behavior and into the realm of bullying, discrimination, or harassment, please contact Butler’s Title IX coordinator.

Academic Integrity

All Butler students, whether face-to-face or online, are expected to adhere to the Academic Integrity policy. Butler’s Academic Integrity statement can be found at the following link: Butler Student Handbook - Academic Integrity

Because of the lack of face-to-face interaction, it can be more difficult to gauge online learners’ intentions and whether or not they are upholding the academic integrity standards. Learners can be quite inventive in their attempts to minimize the effort and work required. An article in USA Today from Aug 2019 (Students Are Using Technology to Cheat) details some of the newer ways learners cheat, including the use of Apple Watches and online summarizing tools. This is more prevalent among learners who lack intrinsic motivation to learn and/or perform well in a course.

Don’t assume learners know what academic integrity means for YOUR online, hybrid, or HyFlex course. Clearly state what is and is not acceptable for the assignments in your course (both in the syllabus and in the instructions for the assignments).

- Are learners permitted to collaborate on some assignments, but not others?
- For group assignments, are learners required to submit their own final versions or are they supposed to submit one as a group?
- What materials are learners permitted to use on quizzes and exams?

Consider providing your learners with additional training or tutorials like:

- Indiana University's How to Recognize Plagiarism Tutorials
- University of Maryland Global Campus Academic Integrity Tutorial

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