A Shift to Faculty-Run LiveTalks in AY22-23
With the increase in the number of traditional online classes each term and the proliferation of Zoom across all parts of academic life at the School, faculty have asked for increased flexibility in scheduling and running LiveTalk sessions. To that end, we introduced self-run LiveTalks in 2021. As the number of online courses continues to grow and faculty feel comfortable with running their own Zoom sessions (in virtual or hybrid courses and in any meeting over the past two years), we are making self-run LiveTalks the default mode of operation.
Starting in the Summer Institute term of Academic Year 2022-2023, LiveTalks in all but the largest of courses at the School will be scheduled and hosted by the faculty. This brings faculty more flexibility, but also a few changes in responsibility, including scheduling and managing sessions in Zoom. Faculty will still need to add their LiveTalk sessions to CoursePlus in advance through CTL, but new benefits include:
- Ability to schedule LiveTalks at any time
- Complete control over the meeting set-up, including waiting rooms
- Option to add Zoom’s latest advanced polling and quizzing in the LiveTalk
- Option to add post-meeting surveys to the LiveTalk
- Direct access to the LiveTalk’s poll results and participant activity reports inside the Zoom portal
Although faculty will run their own LiveTalks, the School’s Multimedia team will be available as a support resource during business hours until 7:30 pm, Mon-Thurs, and until 5pm on Fridays. The Multimedia team is also available for one-on-one training in all aspects of Zoom. There are several resources to help you with Zoom, including the University’s latest Guidelines for Recording with Zoom.
To make this switch successful, faculty must have their own JHU licensed Zoom accounts. (Also see JHU Zoom FAQ.) Faculty will need a Hopkins licensed account to allow for cloud recordings with automated transcripts, as well as allow for class meetings with up to 300 student participants. (The CTL team will reach out to anyone projected to have a course enrollment over 300, as those LiveTalks require special accommodations.) After the LiveTalk, faculty will have the option on the CoursePlus LiveTalk page to share the link of the cloud recording or upload the recording with transcript to the course site. Reporting of LiveTalk attendance and recording viewing will still be available from within CoursePlus. As a reminder, students appreciate the ability to review the recordings, especially if they cannot attend the session in real time.
We are excited about the flexibility that the new self-run LiveTalk format puts into faculty’s hands! We also know there may be a bit of hesitancy at this time of transition. Rest assured, your course’s instructional designer will provide individual guidance to help you get started. CTL, Multimedia, and IT@JH University Information Systems will be here to help along the way.