For the record

With the added risk of H1N1 this flu season, more students will miss class and for longer periods of time. The U has taken measures to try to prevent a major outbreak of H1N1, letting students know that they do not need a doctor’s note to stay home with symptoms of H1N1 to avoid infecting other students. This is a good first step, but it begs the question: how are ill students to keep academic pace with their peers?

Instructors should be asked to record their lectures for students who are unable to come to class due to illness. It is unrealistic to expect students to rely on classmates’ unintelligible and idiosyncratic notes, when the instructor’s own recorded lecture could be one click away.

For instructors who use computers in lecture, there are already options listed online in the Instructional Technology Resources Guide , including Wimba Voice Presentation which allows instructors to “record their lectures and synchronize the audio to online presentations” through WebVista or Moodle. Instructors can obtain a microphone from the Office of Information Technology if he or she needs one. For instructors who don’t use computers, a simple audio recorder would suffice.

Instructors should take advantage of existing technology and if necessary, ask for more recording resources to help make lectures more accessible to students, especially those sick students the University has asked stay home. Posting recorded lectures online or even podcasting them can only further the mission of learning. The University could preempt upcoming absence problems while gaining an advantage in areas like distance learning.