Fall 2020 LfA
Learn from Anywhere (LfA)
Boston University will offer classes on campus in Boston, with appropriate physical distancing, and will also make it possible for many students to attend and participate in live class sessions remotely, using a new format called Learn from Anywhere (LfA). Graduate and professional students who are not able to get to Boston by the first day of the fall semester, for whatever reason, will be able to fully participate in their program; they will be completely up-to-date when they are able to sit in a Boston University classroom. For more information see the Fall 2020 Planning: Graduate and Professional Programs Website.
*Please contact your program director with questions or for more details.
| Program Name |
Fall 2020 Format |
| MS in Anatomy & Neurobiology |
Blended modality of required in-person and remote learning |
| MS in Medical Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Practices |
LfA |
| MS in Healthcare Emergency Management |
LfA |
| MS in Bioimaging |
LfA- coursework only; in person training may be required |
| MS in Clinical Research |
Blended modality of required in-person and remote learning |
| MS in Genetic Counseling |
LfA- coursework only; in person training may be required |
| MS in Pathology |
LfA- coursework only; in person training may be required |
| MS in Medical Sciences |
LfA |
| MA in Mental Health Counseling & Behavioral Medicine |
LfA- coursework only; in person training may be required |
| MS in Biomedical Research Technologies |
Blended modality of required in-person and remote learning |
| MS in Oral Health Sciences |
LfA |
| MS in Biomedical Forensic Sciences |
Blended modality of required in-person and remote learning |
| MS in Forensic Anthropology |
Blended modality of required in-person and remote learning |
| MS in Nutrition & Metabolism |
LfA |
| MS in Physician Assistant |
Blended modality of required in-person and remote learning |
Student Etiquette
- Join the sessions on time; times will be posted in Eastern Standard Time (Boston, MA). Joining a few minutes early will allow you to test your audio and video so the class can start on time.
- Use your real name.
- Join with audio muted, unless speaking. Classroom engagement is encouraged by using the raise hand function, unmuting audio when called upon and/or utilizing the chat function to ask a question (at the discretion of the learning activity facilitator).
- Join with video on to be interactive. Students may stop their video for moments of necessary self care or if their environment becomes distracting.
- Close unneeded applications on your computer to keep the video working, especially with a weak wifi signal.
- Be aware of what your professor and classmates can see. They can see behind you and they can see what you’re wearing (clothing is not optional).
- Post questions in chat publicly so fellow peers can also read questions or ask follow ups.
- Have headphones/earbuds with microphone readily available at all times while on campus
- Use headphones/earbuds whenever participating in a virtual session while within a classroom or other on-campus location where other individuals may be present who are not participating
Faculty Etiquette
- Provide expectations/guidelines to students during course/module introduction/first session.
- The faculty should join the Zoom room 5 minutes prior to start of session to test polling function or screen sharing capabilities. At the start of the session a reminder of the pertinent student expectations should be communicated verbally or in the chat. Guidelines that are suggestion to be communicated are as follows:
- Join/start the sessions on time, times will be posted in Eastern Standard Time (Boston)
- Join with video on and audio muted, unless speaking. Classroom engagement is encouraged by using the raise hand function, unmuting audio when called upon and/or utilizing the chat function to ask a question (at the discretion of the learning activity facilitator). Students may stop their video for moments of necessary self care.
- Use chat to ask questions, and questions should be posted publicly (in both large lecture sessions and small group sessions.)
- Moderator (if present) should verbally relay questions to the instructor to avoid parallel conversations. Answering the question in the chat should be avoided.
- In small groups it will obviously be easier to ask questions verbally, and use the hand raising function
- Have headphones/earbuds with microphone readily available at all times while on campus
- Make an announcement to students regarding if the session is being recorded and whether breakout rooms will be used.
- If breakout rooms are used, the facilitator will need to pause the Zoom recording. Breakout sessions are not recorded and will leave a black screen during the duration of the breakout.
- Be mindful of student fatigue and make sure to provide 10 minute breaks between scheduled 50 min sessions. If a session is longer than an hour, consider a break midway through the session. Please see best practices document.
- If session is mandatory, course coordinator will keep track of attendance using the registration feature.
- Create an attendance report from the online portal in Zoom. By viewing the usage report you can determine duration, entry and exit points of each participant.
- For audio/visual assistance and classroom recordings, contact BUMC IS&T Educational Media: https://www.bumc.bu.edu/bumc-emc/
- TurningPoint questions can still be utilized as long as students are given the code to respond. The Zoom polling function can also be used, but only the host can pre-set the questions in Zoom.
- Create one TP code for all sessions per class
- Lecturer (or moderator) should verbally paraphrase/repeat each question (from the audience or the chat) before answering. The chat feature cannot be seen in Echo recordings or in Zoom recordings that are recorded to the computer. If you would like the chat feature to show up in Zoom recordings, please make sure you are recording to the cloud.
- Note where microphone will be – need to stay in its proximity
- Jabra mic for zoom (for lecture halls)
- Mic for Echo
Zoom Support
- For courses with assigned AV tech (i.e. PrISM, DRx), recordings of zoom sessions will be posted on Blackboard as soon as possible (usually within 24 hours). Use both modes
- Zoom recording – one big recording (may post sooner than Echo and could be an Echo back up if needed)
- Echo recording – broken up into individual lectures
- Secure each Zoom session:
- All meetings scheduled on or after July 5th, 2020 will require a password. Currently, passwords are enabled by default, but not required. Please ensure that future meetings are password protected. This will be especially important for recurring meetings. Passwords must be clearly posted on the blackboard site.
- Existing scheduled meetings will not be affected; however, you are strongly encouraged to password protect them. For more information on securing existing meetings, please see Securing Your Meetings on TechWeb. Starting July 19th 2020, Zoom will enable waiting rooms on any meetings without password protection.
- All instant meetings started with the “New Meeting” button in the Zoom app or the “Host a Meeting” option on the Zoom website will be password protected. Participants can be invited or sent the one-click URL once the meeting starts, just as before. This change will not affect instant meetings that use your Personal Meeting ID (PMI); your PMI security settings will still be honored.