Standards & Procedures for Faculty

A big part of being successful at online instruction is to be both organized and thoughtful in your approach. RSMA strives to create a music academy that is second to none. In order for us to live up to our standards, you need to know what our standards are and adhere to them as faculty of RSMA.

 

​Standards​

1. Discuss online etiquette and expectations of the students in your first virtual class and periodically revisit the topics. For example, you may have to suggest proper sitting in order to observe correct posture for playing.

2. Take time to promote questions, comments, and reactions from your student. Give a minute to allow your student to utilize reactions or be unmuted to ask their questions live.

3. Pre-set your meeting to mute participant’s microphones upon entry. This helps to avoid background noise and allow your students to focus on your lesson.

4. Speak as if you’re face-to-face with your student while ensuring you’re at the appropriate distance from the microphone for the best audio experience.

5. ​

 

Procedures

1. Join your class a couple minutes early to ensure a proper connection and to create a quality online learning experience.

2. Give an agenda or plan for each class by emailing lessons via RSMA email or screen sharing a document or slide at the beginning of class. This gives students a clear idea of how the class will progress, what will be covered, and the activities they’ll engage in.

3. Your class in the Zoom application will be scheduled by RSMA according to the availability schedule you provide. RSMA will email a copy of the invitation details to you and your students. *Please note that students will not need to register for an account to join.

4. Please be casually dressed prior to starting your zoom session.

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Dos

1. Send ALL student/parent correspondence via your RSMA email account.

2. Inform RSMA immediately of all inappropriate interactions with students/parents.​

 

Don'ts

1. Avoid using the chat function on Zoom for sharing lesson notes, as this could normalize social media messaging between faculty and pupil, which should be avoided for safeguarding reasons. Similarly, switch off or mute notifications on all devices being used for the duration of the lesson. If you need assistance with any of these functions, please contact faculty@ronsavagemusicacademy.org​

 

Privacy and security guidance while using Zoom

Zoom is a popular platform used to host meetings and online instrumental lessons and has increased in popularity. Unfortunately there have been some reports of "Zoombombing" - when unsolicited and inappropriate content is shared during the call. This can be avoided by ensuring that the following settings are used:

• Use a unique ID – you can do this by selecting generate ID automatically

• Use a password – and share this privately with the students

• Create a waiting room – this allows the host to choose who to let in

• Turn off screen sharing – this is in advanced sharing settings

• Lock your zoom meeting once it’s started – you can find this in participants > more > lock meeting

• Turn off DMs (Direct Messages) – admin > account settings > disable private chat. Individuals can also personally block any uninvited attendees and can send the moderator names for removal

• Block gifs and file-sharing – to disable go to admin > IM management > IM settings

If someone joins the zoom who was not invited:

• Remove them from the call immediately

• If you can, keep a record of what the invited person wrote or did before you removed them as this can help Zoom deal with future issues. Report it immediately (right after your lesson) to RSMA.