So I’ve always been honest and transparent person and I expect my students to be the same. The course talks about making humor or light of mistakes. I definitely believe there’s a time and a place for that, but for the most part, I strive to be honest with my students when I have made a mistake because I want them to do the same for me to ensure were maximizing our time togeter. 

If anything this course is giving me reassurance to is a responsible choice to ensure the learning environment is positive for the students who are you eager to learn.  For those who I have continued to try to work with over and over and over sending them to administration is a viable and reasonable option. It does not mean I have given up on the student rather referring them to someone in assisting with getting student back on track.

Having inattentive and students with short attention spans is a real thing. I know the course mentions how some of this might be because the student does not see relevancy in the information but I do think it’s a bigger issue. I try to do as much active learning in my class as possible because after 5-10 minutes I lose half the class.  I will try some of the techniques outline to see if it helps. 

One of the hardest challenges I’ve experienced so far is finding a way to make the class purposeful for all students and keeping them engaged. I found found that group “think tanks” are the most beneficial way to keep the student engaged even if it’s just for 15 minutes a class. It not only facilitates collaboration but it opens that students mind to relevancy of content even when they did not see how the information would help them achieve their personal goals. 

The standards for maintaining FERPA in the online classroom environment has evolved so much over the decade. The security measures in ensuring the students only expose the necessary identifiable information to participate in the online learning environment has become more advanced and streamlined across the LMS platforms. 

You would be surprised faculty members who believe because they are faculty they should have access to any information they want regarding a student when this is not the case. Majority of the time it is never to be malicious. They trying to investigate to overcome any obstacles the students might be having in the classroom, but such actions could also be violating the students privacy. It’s a fine line between assisting the students with overcoming obstacles versus violating their privacy.

I learned 2 things in the this module. I did not know anything around the rules for “directory” information and how these typically are not a violation of FERPA. The other thing I learned was being a dependent does not shield the student from information being shared with their parents. This is a light bulb moment for me because I automatically thought if the student was 18 and a legal adult, consent would be required but that is not always the case. 

I had no idea around the rules regarding sole possession. I always thought anything and everything regarding the student could at some point be purple covered if it was given out without proper permission. It is when that information is being transferred that changes the rules for the student. I’m not sure I’ll change anything here though I still think it’s in my best interest to always treat every piece of information with the upmost and straight confidentiality. 

I was very surprised to learn that bystanders are not required by law for active intervention to prevent sexual violence. I knew the physical intervention was not required, because the bystander could be putting themselves at risk it physically, trying to prevent the sexual violence from occurring, but did not know they were protected by law even if doing nothing. 

I was surprised to find out the grievance process is not streamlined. It makes me wonder when I hear stories on the news of universities being sued for violations of Title IX could that have been prevented if the process was actually streamlined rather than giving each university a set list of guidelines to follow and allowing each school to create there own process. Is this not leaving opportunity for unintentional error by the school?