Class Reflection Video Assignments

CLASS REFLECTION VIDEO ASSIGNMENT (CRVA)

This is a speaking assignment that is required when you are not in class to attend the lecture and take the attendance quiz or the lecture quiz, for those days when we are not in 100 Thomas. You will submit these if you miss a regularly scheduled class for any reason at all (you’re ill, out of town, at a wedding, etc.) or don’t submit any; C’s earn degrees.

Remember, attendance is an assignment and each class meeting has points assigned to it. Under no circumstances will we ever just give you the points because you have a note from your coach or your doctor in Mount Nittany Hospital. The only way to earn the three attendance points for 28 days of SOC 119 is to attend class and take the two Attendance Quizzes or to submit this assignment for that day. Why not 30 days? Because we don’t take attendance during the first week of the semester.

It is MUCH EASIER to come to class and sign the attendance sheet if you can because it is less work for you. But things happen and we understand that sometimes you cannot be there.

You can only “miss attending class” TWO times (outside of any days that we announce ahead of time that we do not have a live class). After three occasions, then you only receive half credit for any Class Reflections Assignments that you submit. And it does NOT matter if all three of your missed classes are “excused.”

If you are enrolled in Section 002, then you never have to come to class because this is a WEB section. However, you have the option of coming to class and it will be much easier for you to be in 100 Thomas and submit the two Canvas quizzes to earn your three points than it will be to submit the Class Reflection Video Assignments (CRVAs).

These CRVA points will not be uploaded to Canvas until each assignment has closed and the assignments are graded. But, if you attended class and took the attendance quizzes then you will see your points immediately on Canvas.

IMPORTANT: Your Class Reflection Video Assignments are NOT going to be used for any purpose different from earning your attendance points. We will NOT publish them on any of our social media platforms or use their content for any material related to class.

SUBMIT CLASS REFLECTION ASSIGNMENTS HERE

Logistics of the Class Reflection Video Assignment

There are THREE separate video submissions needed for each of the classes you miss in person and each submission related to three different moments of class. Some of you have really active minds and could probably find three things to comment on during the first ten minutes. We understand. However, we want you to watch the entire video, just like when you come to class and stay until the end after taking the attendance quiz.

Each of the three reflections must be AT LEAST 2.5 minutes so each “assignment” will be at least 9 minutes total. DO NOT MAKE ONE SINGLE LONG VIDEO

You will submit your three video reflections in the following way:

Reflection #1: Related to the first 25 minutes of class
Reflection #2: Related to the second 25 minutes of class
Reflection #3: Related to the last 25 minutes of class

On the days in which we have Exams, and you are not in 100 Thomas for whatever reason, then you only have to upload ONE Class Reflection Video Assignment. But you must upload one 3 minute assignment, even if Yuli gives you permission to not be in the classroom.

YOU SHOULD PROBABLY ADJUST YOUR CAMERA’S VIDEO SETTINGS SO THAT
YOU’RE NOT TAKING SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEO. SET IT TO 720p.

How to upload your videos using your phone?

You are probably a real expert recording and uploading videos in any platform (or maybe not), but some instructions about how to do it for this class are always helpful:

Before starting, it’s best to adjust your camera’s video settings to 720p. Uploading super high definition videos will be MORE DIFFICULT for you.
Begin by recording your THREE separate videos on your phone so that they are in your phone’s library.
Open the Class Reflection Video Assignment link
Fill out the required fields on Google form: Your name and your PSU email - do not type your personal email account
Read and mark the academic integrity policy
Select what class was missed and click Next
On the next page, you should do the following steps for EACH video reflection:

Read the Video Reflection Instructions
Click on Add file
Click on Browse, then you should be able to upload a video from the photo library on your phone

Once you follow the instructions for the first video, then you need to do the same process for the other two – so make sure you have all three videos uploaded
Click SUBMIT

How to do this most efficiently and securely?

Here is what we need to see and hear in each of these video reflections:

A "time code" from the video that indicates what part of the video that you’re commenting about (or maybe two different timecodes)
A reference to content from the video:

A quote or statement from one of the student volunteers, although the quote does not have to be 100 percent accurate
A quote or statement from Sam
Reference about data from one of the slides

Your own development of the reflection

All of this happens in each of the 2.5 minutes video submissions.

Plan to take notes as you are watching the video so that you can use them for reference while you are making your video. It is fine if you stumble around a bit and say “um” and pause and that sort of thing. We want your live-in-the-moment reaction to class.

For example, if you want to speak about what a student volunteer named Khalid said, then you should say what he said (the quote) and then start speaking your answer/reflection around that idea. By the way, we WILL be checking if that was an actual quote from Khalid and whether the time code matches with the video content.

You will have one week (7 days) to submit your Class Reflection Video Assignment since the class was live-streamed. For example, if the class happened on Tuesday 9/5 and you missed it, then you will have until Tuesday 9/12 at 6:00PM (ET) to submit the assignment. We won’t give deadline extensions for ANY reason. One week is enough time to record and submit the reflections.

At this point, you should have realized that we are not asking for random topics or definitions that can be found on any search engine. We are looking for YOUR RESPONSE to something that happened in class and made you feel curious about it and want to comment on it.

THIS IS NOT TO BE READ FROM A DOCUMENT YOU WROTE PREVIOUSLY OR AS A FORMAL RESEARCH DISSERTATION. IN FACT, IF WE THINK YOU ARE READING, THEN WE WILL NOT GIVE YOU CREDIT. THE MORE FORMAL YOU MAKE IT, THE MORE LIKELY IT IS THAT WE WILL FLAG IT AND YOU WILL RECEIVE ZERO POINTS.

If you meet all the requirements for each reflection, then we will give you the corresponding attendance points for that missed class. However, if you do not meet all the requirements for each reflection or if you don’t give us your own speaking opinion, then you will receive a ZERO for that reflection.

It is important that you know we are not assessing your opinions, perspectives, or point of view on any given topic or your performance in a video setting. We are interested in knowing what you think about things that happen in the class. That is why we don’t want you to read something you wrote in advance. If you need notes to guide you, that is ok but we want to see you speaking by yourself.

How can you convince us that you did not cheat?

As you already know, the world is being upended by AI tools that allow machines to compose written essays for real people. It is quite the CF if you’re a professor who wants students to put their own thoughts into their own words, to be honest, but it’s also quite awesome that we have developed this technology. There are many valuable ways in which a person could use AI and not have it be considered “cheating.” In fact, this would be true for students in some limited situations. However, in this class, for what we are asking you to do, using AI would be dishonest and, therefore, unethical.

For our part, we have no interest in having you hone your AI skills and just input random questions into an AI content generator and just read it in front of the camera or pretend it is your opinion. Any monkey can do that. And so our dilemma is to organize this assignment so that you cannot use AI to order you what to think. It should be the opposite, right?

If we think that you have used an AI tool to pretend that is your own opinion, or if we discover that you have copied another student’s video content, then we will flag your response. We do check each submission for duplicate content from other students in the class.

We may or may not give you a warning the first time we flag you, however we will discount the points. If it happens a second time, it will result in a Zero for all reflection posts for that class. You might protest, but your protest will be in vain. A second violation will result in us reporting you to the Office of Judicial Affairs and, yeah, that is not good. But you’ll have to work it out with them.

We have a team that is watching every. single. reflection video. Clearly we’ll get better as the semester unfolds and we will definitely make some mistakes. Sorry about that in advance. But this is the life that we’re living right now and this is just how it’s going to be. Welcome to 2024.

Remember, if we flag you, then you cannot appeal. There is no appeal. And so if you have no plans to use an AI tool, then your obvious question should be, “How can I submit these reflections so that you believe that I’ve actually watched the video and speak about it on my own words and did not use an AI platform to do it for me?”

Here are things that you can do to decrease the likelihood that you’ll be flagged:

Mention accurate Time Codes and an accurate quote from the video. The more precise you are, the easier it will be for you and us to identify the moment of the video you are commenting on.

And if you have inaccurate time codes, that tells us that you’re trying to slip something past us and we’re automatically going to be suspicious.

Mention the quote that you are using as accurately as possible. Don’t just say, “I’m going to discuss what that White kid said about his skin,” because, again, that makes us question whether you actually watched the video.
Do NOT speak like you would if you were doing these as a formal thesis. This is NOT a research presentation.
Use your own words in the reflection construction. Refer to your own experience in your hometown or discuss how your family talks about this particular topic.
Discuss something you “realized” or thought about “in a new way” while watching the video. Discuss how that new way of thinking applies to another example in your life.
You could include something about why it is that you selected that particular segment of the video/class. How is it personal to you? Perhaps you’ve never considered this and, because of that, you can imagine that you need to reconsider x or y in your thinking.
Connect your reflection to a recent event at Penn State, your hometown, or your family. Definitely stay away from generalizations and saying things like, “All human beings…” or “People tend to be…”