How to deal with classes that I must cancel due to conference travel?

Question

I will be teaching a course which is made up of 13 weeks of classes in the Fall of 2016. Unfortunately, I will also be travelling in the middle of the semester to a conference in the US from my home university located in Asia. This means that for one week, I will not physically be in my home university and I will have to cancel classes.

Unfortunately, we cover quite a lot of material in the course. Therefore, I am afraid that if I cancel one week of classes I will not be able to cover all the material. What are my options in such a situation?

I was considering recording a video of my lectures just for that week I am away. Assignments can be submitted electronically so I could assign work for the students which they can complete and submit online.

What have other professors/lecturers done in such a situation?

Answer 1

I do it like this:

1. Try to let a colleague* take over. This almost always works with 'standard' classes (intro to statistics, this kind of stuff)
2. Plan the classes in such a way that the students are busy with something else in this week (e.g., data collection), so that a plenary meeting is not necessary.
3. Cancel - but if I would cancel more than one meeting of a course, I would probably get problems with my department.

* we don't really have the concept of a TA here, you are either teaching (then, you are a colleague) or not - so 'colleague' also can include graduate students that might be referred to as TA in other systems

(context: Europe/Netherlands; social sciences)

Answer 2

The first step should be to ask what is usually done at your institution.

Currently I can reschedule lectures when it's really necessary.

At a previous I have written slides for my TA to give. I also covered a lecture for a colleague, from their notes. In this case there was a minimum number of hours of instruction for the course, so missing any would have been a problem (I did cancel one, but in unexpected circumstances).

Answer 3

Adding on to @damian' answer, another suggestion prepone your classes of that period by swapping sessions with your colleagues. This would also require cooperation and understanding from your colleagues.

Answer 4

Besides to all other solutions presented in other answers, I can add these options too.

1. If your university/ department regulations allow you, cancel your class at that day, so your students will be able to schedule their day studying or reviewing their courses; or simply enjoy going out and not having to study at that day. (Joking but your students may be so happy with this option!)

2. Reschedule your course for another day. Of course, this option needs to be checked whether regulations of your university/ department allows you or not. Also, you have to see whether your students can attend at an alternative date or not.

3. Distribute the time of your class between other sessions. For instance, if your class is 45 minutes, you may add 15 minutes to other three sessions to cover time of that class completely. Some students may not be happy with this option because they may have scheduled class after your class and this extended time may waste their coffee breaks.

4. Use distance learning methods and if your institute has video conference and high speed internet, teach by video conferencing methods. Some applications such as Skype may allow you to do so. However, you should think about this method and whether your university/ department allows you to do so.

Plan some programs which do not require you to be present with your class at the day you are going to the conference. This may include activities such:

1. Some professors or lecturers have quizzes or midterm exams during the semester.
   You may schedule your quizzes or class exams to be taken at the day you are going to travel. Of course this needs previous notification to your class.

2. Some others plan short one day technical visits to projects, laboratories, etc. These types of visits is very often in the courses of Engineering programs such as Civil Engineering in which students visit some construction projects as part of their courses. If your presence is not important in such one day programs, then scheduling your travel during these visits seems to be perfect.

3. Some courses are presented by two lecturers. If your course is the same, you may ask your partner lecturer to go to the class in that specific day.

4. Ask a colleague lecturer to go to the class. However, I do not really recommend this option in a student's perspective. When I was a student, I did not really like the change in the method the course delivered to me by an alternative lecturer. Professors have different ways of lecturing, and just one session will not give enough time to lecturer and students to get to know each other and productivity may probably be affected. Of course some lecturers are so professional and can deliver courses and control the class perfectly. I will recommend to put this option as last choice.

5. Ask your TA to have one of his classes at the time you are not going to your class.

Answer 5

My first teaching experience was delivering a lecture, from notes prepared by the instructor, for a course I TA'ed in. Decades later, as an adjunct, I was able to give one of my TAs the same opportunity. Other things I used in other years included:

• holding the midterm the week I was to be away, and getting my TAs to supervise it. This works if you only have to move the midterm one week in either direction
• teaching into the "tutorial hour" twice (typically once before and once after the absence) to deliver two extra hours of material, allowing me to skip an entire week (I had a three hour slot once a week, two hours of fast paced lecture followed by an hour of informal chat for those who wanted to stay.)

Checking with your department is key. They will generally approve whatever you suggest if you ask them in advance, but be annoyed if you just do something unusual and then students come and complain. And believe me, students will come and complain. There is always one who would have got 99 on the midterm if it had been held as planned, but because you moved it a week only got 34, and goes to the head to get some justice.

If you don't have a TA, your department may be able to suggest a grad student or fellow prof who likes your topic and can do it. Also, your TA may be terrified and try to decline - be prepared to spend some coaching time. This is part of having a TA, inducting them into academic life. Or they may think it's going to be great, but not actually do very well. Allow some time the week you are back to review what was done with the TA, just in cse.

Answer 6

Create a video of your lecture. This works especially well since you have such advanced warning that you won't be present -- you have plenty of time to plan, record and edit the video.

I've done this a half-dozen times or so and find it works very well. The recording/editing tools have become easy to use in the past 3-4 years. I use ScreenFlow to capture my slides, web cam and audio. Other tools would do as well, I'm sure.

I then upload the video to our LM system and warn students with an email.

For one of my sophomore-level classes, I have a TA show up in the classroom at the assigned time to watch the video with any students who want to attend. The TA can then replay part of the video ("hey, what did he say there?") or pause the video to answer questions.

Answer 7

Don’t go to the conference, the customers (students) have paid to get these classes. Therefore they have a right to be put first.

Without students there would be no money to do research…..