Faculty Technology Advisory Committee

We want to offer these kinds of flexible options for students, but there are a lot of things that must happen first.

Three Issues:

1. Technology - classrooms do not have the required technology.
• If the university expects faculty to teach in-person and online at the same time, all classrooms and learning spaces must be properly equipped.
• Technology needs cannot be determined until expectations and modalities are clarified.
• Funding and staff are needed to update and maintain the classrooms.
  
  
2. Modality Definitions - need to clearly define the modalities
   • The University needs to establish a definition for the modalities and how courses in our programs will be defined.
     
     
3. Expectations of Faculty - upper administration saying faculty will do this
   • Our first step should be to ask if the expectation for course delivery has changed since our recommendation last year. This puts an extreme amount of work on the faculty (managing the face-to-face classroom,  simulcasting, and accommodating different audiences, interfaces, and technologies. It’s like teaching 3 classes at once.
   • Some faculty end up acquiescing to meet the needs of the students, which is unmanageable.
   • It should not be a requirement that every faculty be able to simulcast their course (regardless of whether it’s the technology or pedagogy); it should be up to the faculty how best to teach their courses--they developed the content, which could be degraded if forced to teach a specific way.
   • There are not enough people to support Hyflex (TAs, technical staff, etc.)
   • Policy-related questions. i.e. Can students demand courses be offered in simulcast if they are out sick?

Other considerations and Issues

• What modalities can we offer with the technology we currently have?
• Students are getting confused about where the class will be taught
• Students may feel they are not getting what they thought they signed up and paid for. 
• The recent university inclement weather announcement for classes held before 10am caught everyone off guard, was confusing, and faculty had less than an hour to change plans and prepare to address questions from students. 
• What about international students and the requirements for face-to-face classes?
• Some courses must be taught face-to-face (i.e. anatomy, that requires using a cadaver)
• Alex has communicated that technology is a requirement to simulcast in centrally supported classrooms would cost 27% more than they do now; technology and support staff considerations, etc. He has been asked to draft a one-page, quick assessment of what we need and what we have.
• The purpose of this committee is to look at technology. The current problem is that we're not actually doing what we're supposed to, because we first have to figure out what we are looking at the technology for. We can’t do what the charter for this committee is until the modalities are defined and decided. Part of our charter is how online programs and courses will be provided and the technology to support them. FTAC Charter

Action Item: Letter to Dr. Rao

The committee discussed and decided on the following:

• A statement will be drafted by Valerie and sent to the provost, the president and the faculty senate  with the following information about our concerns and what we think are realistic expectations. (To be drafted by Friday, 2/11 and sent.)

• Include a note to the Faculty Senate: This committee has discussed and made a resolution that we would like the Faculty Senate to support.

• What is expected of faculty? This committee voted last year that faculty not be expected to teach in a HyFlex environment. Has this changed?

• There needs to be an understanding of what simulcast will mean for faculty.

• We need to teach in the modality that our classes are assigned, and not changed to accommodate students who want to choose whether to come to class in person or virtually when they are sick. (Note: Valerie to confirm that what we were told is still valid--you can't change the modality once you've committed to that on the schedule.)

• The university needs to establish a definition for these various modalities and how courses in our programs will be defined. 

• We need a place in Banner to upload a pdf of our syllabus that states how the class will be delivered, setting clear expectations for the students that register. 

• Faculty flexibility to adjust as needed, but there has to be a defined, basic standard in place that is communicated to administration and students.

• Faculty need the ability to work in individual areas, in our different colleges and our individual departments to come up with something that works for us. Areas have different needs and diverse students and we can’t say one thing is going to work for everybody. We need this flexibility so we can continue instruction regardless of circumstances.

Valerie shared the links to these surveys (stored in our FTAC shared drive), and briefly discussed doing more surveys, what to ask and how to get more responses.

• Faculty Preferences when Teaching with Technology Survey 
  by Academic Technologies and VCU Online
  Colleen explained that this survey was based on an Educause survey that was conducted in 2019 and 2021. Elaine Reeder (VCU ALTLab) is doing a comparison of the survey results from the past 2 years.

• Faculty Experiences with Online Teaching: Pandemic and Beyond 
  by the Online Strategy Task Force

• Student Experiences with Online Learning: Pandemic and Beyond 
  by the Online Strategy Task Force
  Valerie stated that the task force surveyed the students at the end of the fall semester and the response rate was pretty low. When should we do another survey of students? Should we consider doing them by department so it's easier to reach out to them? What can we do to get a higher response rate?  Jon - mentioned an Educause survey that might give us some insight. 

Action Item: Colleen (Complete)
Colleen will follow-up on whether there's something nationally we can refer to for questions to ask, etc.  
Document provided to the committee with national student survey details and information from other universities.

• Current RFP process has been put on hold due to the work of the Online Strategy Task Force. 

Kristine Artello asked if anyone else has had an issue of “fireflies” coming into a Zoom class? She said it looks like an AI assistant program to record the class. She did not request or allow it, it just popped in without permission and recorded the class. It came in under a student’s name. She talked with the student after class and the student did not know what it was and did not invite it in.   

Jon Becker found and shared this information about Zoom fireflies. 

Action Item: John Bogan (Complete)
John will follow-up with our Zoom administrator and provide more information.
Internal document from John Bogan and David Morefield, with investigation details and actions taken.