Course Guidance

The Office of Accessible Education (OAE) encourages all instructors to record their class sessions. OAE may need to access those recordings for the purpose of captioning, creating transcripts, or production of alternate format. Additionally, some students may be approved for an accommodation to record the session.

However, there may be classes where there are pedagogical reasons not to record a session or part of a session because of the sensitive nature of the topic. Instructors should alert students in the class to this at the start of the course, and, if pausing recording during a session in order to move into a sensitive discussion topic, remind students to pause their individual note-taking or lecture capturing methods.

Due to statutory and regulatory compliance issues associated with public posting of recorded lectures (e.g., student privacy, copyright), instructors should not post video content on any site other than their Stanford Canvas course site.

Instructors should be mindful of the copyright and privacy considerations that arise when course presentations or performances (either streamed or recorded) are made available to audiences beyond Stanford students and course staff. In general, use of third-party content is more restrictive and usually requires copyright clearance. If the presentations or performances include students, students' work, or students' personally identifiable information, opt-in consent from those students is required.

For more information, please see Stanford University Libraries Copyright Reminder.

Office hours are considered instruction. Instructors and TAs may meet with students outdoors if all parties agree to meet outdoors and adhere to all current health and safety requirements. 

Office hours currently are not allowable in indoor spaces, including offices and conference rooms.

Instructors and TAs may hold office hours remotely. CTL has identified 10 Strategies for Making Virtual Office Hours More Effective.

The AY 2020-21 calendar is based on 10-week academic quarters that do not include a dedicated end-of-quarter period. As such, there will be no final exam week. The Registrar’s Office has published guidance on coursework deadlines for AY 2020-21.

Instructors are encouraged to rethink their assignments and assessments for a remote course environment. Rather than administering a high-stakes exam at the end of the quarter, it is recommended that instructors offer more frequent, lower-stakes assessments throughout the quarter. For courses with final papers or projects, consider scaffolding components of these projects across the quarter. CTL has developed materials for instructors on feedback and assessment. Teaching Commons also has guidance on teaching strategies that uphold the Honor Code and support student learning.

All university-sponsored travel will remain suspended until at least January 4, 2021. Any changes to this policy will be posted to HealthAlerts. While exceptions for research-related travel by faculty, staff, graduate students, or postdocs are rarely granted, no exceptions will be made to permit undergraduate students to engage in university-sponsored travel (Travel Policy). This includes travel for research or fieldwork in a course, and extends to local travel near a student’s current location.

Undergraduate students may engage in research and fieldwork that is remote (e.g., teleconferencing, telephone calls, attending virtual events). Instructors seeking guidance on how to adapt a course’s fieldwork or research project may schedule a consultation with CTL.

Information about undergraduate participation in on-campus research is available on Research Recovery. In some cases, this on-campus research may be associated with course enrollment for Honors work.

It is possible that a student or member of the instruction team (instructor or TA) may test positive for COVID-19, or suspect that they may have COVID-19, pending confirmation of test results. This document includes guidance for instructors and students on what to do in these circumstances.