Some policies regarding recording classes, attendance, and online proctoring

August 21, 2020

As we head into the fall semester, we would like to share with faculty some updates to policies and best practices for teaching online this fall. The following are meant to address questions that members of the faculty have expressed recently:

Key updates:

• Faculty teaching synchronous live courses (e.g., conducting class meetings on Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate, etc.):
  • May not require students to turn on their web cameras
  • May not sanction a student for not attending synchronous class sessions
  • Should strive to be flexible, providing ways for students who are not able to engage in a synchronous class session due to technical, family, or covid-related issues with a way to still engage with the course

• Faculty who choose to record their class meetings:
  • May not record a student in a class session without the student’s consent

• Faculty are not required to record their class meetings

• Attendance
  • Being a “non-attendance taking institution” does not mean that we may not take attendance (see below).

• Faculty who administer online exams
  • CUNY is in negotiation with online proctoring providers. If negotiations are concluded successfully, online proctoring should be possible.
  • If you might use online proctoring in your class(es), you should let your students know (on the syllabus or otherwise in writing) that CUNY is in negotiation with online proctoring providers and that if negotiations are concluded successfully your students will need to turn on their webcams in order to take the final exam. (If the negotiations conclude soon, online proctoring for other exams might be possible as well.)

In the following, we provide more context, details, and resources:

1. CUNY Policies on Recording Classes (from UPDATE #19: CUNY COVID-19 Guidance on Academic Continuity –  August 14, 2020)

“Recording of Remote Classes: As is the case with many colleges and universities that have chosen online and distance learning modalities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty utilizing Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate and other digital technology to deliver course curriculum/material must be sensitive to issues of privacy. To that end, faculty offering classes through web conferencing digital technology like Zoom must not record a student in a class session without the student’s consent. Similarly, CUNY discourages students from recording the sessions unless such recording is part of a reasonable accommodation under the law or is not prohibited by campus policy. To obtain consent, faculty who wish to record their class sessions must provide the following announcement, in emails, and/or class syllabus, to enrolled students and verbally at the opening of the first class session:

Students who participate in this class with their camera on or use a profile image are agreeing to have their video or image recorded solely for the purpose of creating a record for students enrolled in the class to refer to, including those enrolled students who are unable to attend live. If you are unwilling to consent to have your profile or video image recorded, be sure to keep your camera off and do not use a profile image. Likewise, students who un-mute during class and participate orally are agreeing to have their voices recorded. If you are not willing to consent to have your voice recorded during class, you will need to keep your mute button activated and communicate exclusively using the “chat” feature, which allows students to type questions and comments live.

As mentioned in the announcement, recording of classes is for the benefit of students. Faculty shall not use class recordings as a means of determining class attendance and are reminded that CUNY is classified by the U.S. Department of Education as a non-attendance taking institution. Doubts faculty may have regarding the identity of participants should be alleviated if faculty offer their classes through applications and resources that have been licensed by CUNY Central or their college and require a CUNY/College ID for login, thereby giving reasonable assurance that participants are CUNY students.

For the avoidance of doubt, the prohibition on recording without consent does not apply to audio or video lectures of the faculty member only and that do not include a student participation component.”

Resources to help faculty with this policy:

UPDATE #19: CUNY COVID-19 Guidance on Academic Continuity – August 14, 2020

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Instructor Resources

Teaching with Zoom @ Baruch College

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2. The first bullet of the college’s “Guidelines for Teaching in a Distance Learning Environment During COVID-19” has been revised as highlighted below:

• Synchronous live lecture (e.g., Zoom, Webex, Blackboard Collaborate, etc.)

Instructors are encouraged to record their online lectures and make them available for students to access asynchronously. No one is required to record his or her lectures. When they are not recorded, alternative means for students to learn the material should be provided. These might include, for example, access to the instructor’s notes/slides or other materials. You can explore some options by 

Resources to help faculty with this policy:

CTL Online Course Prep Guide (Week 3)

Teaching with Zoom @ Baruch College

 A revised version of the guideline, which is intended to provide suggestions to chairs to help advise members of their department’s faculty, will appear soon.

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3. Attendance

CUNY’s reference above (under 1.) to a “non-attendance taking institution” merits some discussion. Institutions that the government designates as “attendance taking institutions” are required to take attendance at every meeting of every class and to report the results to the government regularly. CUNY colleges are not so required; hence, Baruch is part of a “non-attendance taking institution.” We may take attendance or not, although we do have a requirement at the beginning of each semester (during the Verification of Enrollment period) to report on students who have never attended the class or shown evidence of membership in the class. (“Membership” could be evinced, for example, by turning in assignments.) Members of the faculty may set their own attendance policies, but may not “drop” students from a class. (Students must be allowed to continue to attend and to take a final exam even if they have earned an F based on poor attendance.) If an instructor has an attendance policy, it must be applied to all students and the instructor must keep accurate attendance records.

Resources to help faculty with this policy:

Baruch Faculty Handbook: Attendance Policies: https://provost.baruch.cuny.edu/facultyhandbook/attendance-policies-march-2015/

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4. Online proctoring of exams

Last spring, CUNY announced that faculty could not make use of online proctoring systems for Spring 2020 final exams. Currently, CUNY is negotiating with a vendor of a proctoring application. More details should be released soon. In the meantime, we urge faculty who might be interested in using such systems to include on their syllabi some version of the following:

By the time of this class’s midterm or final exams, CUNY faculty might be given access to an online proctoring system. If we are, I plan to make use of the system for our final (and/or midterm) examination. All members of the class will be asked to turn on their web cameras in order to take the exam(s). 

Resources to help faculty with this policy:

Resources for Maintaining Instructional Continuity during COVID-19 will post any updates

Balancing Academic Integrity during Final Exams with Student Privacy, Access and Equity in Spring 2020 offers online proctoring alternatives

Dennis Slavin, PhD
Associate Provost and Assistant Vice President
Baruch College, CUNY
dennis.slavin@baruch.cuny.edu
https://provost.baruch.cuny.edu/about-us/leadership/