Policy on the Use of Class Recordings in the PharmD Program

(Formerly the “Breeze Policy”)

Preamble

The availability of sophisticated technology can, if used appropriately, assist faculty in their teaching by facilitating student learning. However, regardless of the technology that is brought to bear in the classroom, we recognize that the School is a community of educators and learners, and that the success of our educational mission is dependent on the interactions (among students and between faculty and students) that occur in such a community. As we become more proficient in our use of technology, an interactive community may extend outside the borders of our classrooms. Our present technology, in some instances, allows for such interactivity from locations outside of the classroom; however we have not yet developed the tools to evaluate the outcome of a highly decentralized learning environment. In addition, we have not yet grappled with the legal issues associated with the potential for permanent distribution of what might be considered to be an individual faculty member’s intellectual property. Consequently, the School has adopted the following policy concerning access to class recordings.

Policy Statements

1)    Student access to Adobe Connect during class is prohibited.

2)    The intent of the course recordings is to guard against catastrophic events that disrupt the ability of the three campus sites to either communicate or conduct classes simultaneously. Such catastrophic events include dropping the transmission between the campuses and weather-related (or other) events that force the closing of the campus on the “receiving end” of the signal. In these cases, all students in the class will be given access to the relevant archived session(s).

3)    All lectures will be recorded for classes that are videoteleconferenced but only lectures that are released by the course director will actually be posted. Access to recorded files that are not posted will be restricted to key personnel in the School. Files of lectures that have been recorded but not posted will not be released to anyone else without authorization of the instructor.

a.    Each course will have their own policy regarding the release of course recordings. The release of recordings will be based on various elements including class format and instructional goals. This policy will appear in the course syllabus and be discussed on the first day of class. Course directors are provided with a guidance document to assist them in determining the appropriateness of releasing class recordings.

b.    For courses where class recordings are released, each course will have their own policy to guard against potential drop in attendance. This policy will appear in the course syllabus and be discussed on the first day of class. Course directors are provided with a guidance document to assist them in developing a policy that is consistent with their teaching philosophy and format of the course.

4)    Students will be required to sign a student attestation form (Appendix 5) that clearly states the limitation of their usage of the posted lecture recordings and other course material on the School’s learning management software system (e.g, Blackboard or Sakai). Collection and archiving of these forms would be performed by the Office of Student Services. The forms will be distributed and collected during orientation, and lecture recordings will not be posted unless all registered students have turned in a signed form.

5)    In year one of a particular class or course, the default option will be that the class will not be released to students unless the course director has consented (i.e., opt-in option).

6)    Faculty members who have previously declined to have their lectures posted can change their mind at the end of their lecture and agree to have their class posted.

7)    Classes will only be available in streaming format and cannot be downloaded to individual personal computers.

a.    Links to recorded classes will be removed by July or the end of each academic year.

8)    The lecture recording system will be set up so that it automatically records each lecture as scheduled plus all except the last minute of the time scheduled between that class and the beginning of the next lecture so that the majority of classes that run a little long will be recorded intact.

a.    Links for each class will be emailed to faculty or a designate (e.g., teaching assistant) at the end of the day.

b.    For links to be accessed by students, the links will be placed on a protected Web site (e.g., Blackboard or its equivalent) that is only available to UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy students.

9)    For courses that do not release course recordings, under very limited circumstances class recordings may be provided to individual students by the authority of the course director. Course directors have been provided guidelines for which these circumstances may occur.

10)    In some cases, class meetings or activities that fall outside of the normal lecture schedule (e.g., review sessions) may be recorded. Due to potential conflicts in the scheduling of such sessions, there may be value in allowing students to access this material asynchronously. Consequently, students may be given access to this material at the discretion of the course director. The impact of this access on attendance at review sessions or other class meetings will be evaluated, and the policy adjusted as necessary.

11)    The School through various entities (e.g., Curriculum Committee, Center for Educational Excellence in Pharmacy) will monitor the use of class recordings and course policies. This information will be made available to faculty to facilitate future decisions regarding the release of class recordings.

This policy will be reviewed regularly by the Executive Committee to keep pace with the rapidly changing instructional technology environment of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.