We will be using Zoom for our weekly class meetings, and also for office hours.
Our Zoom sessions will be discussion-focused and will combine full class conversation with breakout rooms used for smaller group discussion and group work. My intent is to convey “lecture” material via the lecture bites included within the weekly mixes, so that during our weekly Zoom sessions we can focus on discussions and group work.
I strongly encourage you to turn your video on during our Zoom sessions, though I understand that various circumstances from connectivity issues to noisy environments can sometimes interfere. But I hope that the default will be that we speak with each other via both video & audio. I ask that you also upload an image — either of yourself or something that you feel represents you — to Zoom so help us create an interpersonal community feel even when you need to turn off your camera.
Finally, and perhaps this goes without saying, I ask that you bring the same intellectual/emotional presence, respect for one another, and thoughtfulness to our Zoom sessions as you would to in-person class sessions. In some ways, this is almost even more vital during an all-remote semester, as it is perhaps easier to misread intent and to feel alienated from conversations online than in person, especially within an online classroom context that we’re not fully used to.
If you have any questions or concerns about our use of Zoom (or any other communication tool) please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, either via email (louisas@middlebury.edu) or via the course feedback form under the Start Here menu.
