Attendance, timetables, lectures, tutorials, and the hybrid format of this class

This class has been scheduled to make it possible for everyone to dip their toes carefully back into campus classrooms while also accommodating the disruptions caused by the ongoing pandemonium.

Lectures do not take place on campus, and are not entirely synchronous. In place of the on-campus mass gathering that usually happens in a lecture, we will have:

• A collection of short video or multimedia presentations, each on a single key topic or example relevant to the week, in the checklists on Canvas for every week. You can watch these in your own time during the week.
• A live “office hour” with the lecturer at a set time for an hour on Zoom (see the Zoom page on Canvas for the times and links).
• Notes and other supplementary information in the weekly checklists on Canvas to help you think about the week’s ideas on your own.
• Weekly quiz questions that help you consolidate your knowledge about the important ideas in the week’s readings and the lecture videos and notes.

Tutorials are scheduled at set times during the week, and each student will be assigned to one. If you are not able to come to campus every week, then you can choose to enroll in a Zoom videoconference tutorial at a specific time in the week. If you are able to come to campus, then you can choose to enroll in a tutorial on campus. The on-campus tutorial classrooms are larger than usual. (Our class’s tutorial classrooms are well ventilated too. Brrr!) They will be diligently cleaned every day.

Everyone is required to be enrolled in a tutorial. But you are not required to attend your tutorial every week; that is to say, participation in tutorial is not part of your final grade.

• If you feel sick or for whatever reason don’t want to come to campus or be in a tutorial classroom, you don’t have to. You can and should stay home if you feel unwell (or if you are “at risk”.) You can do everything that you are required to do for the week off campus.
• If you miss a tutorial, but you still want to touch base about the week’s readings and lectures, you should email your tutor or the lecturers, or attend one of the office hours for the lecturers. You cannot go to another tutorial on campus or one of the online tutorials.

Tutorials are a resource we hope you use regularly throughout the semester to discuss the ideas from class with your colleagues and your tutor. Tutors will also be giving a lot of guidance on the assignments for each module in their weekly tutorials. Plus, the discussions in tutorial are fun! There are a lot of provocative and controversial ideas in this class, and we hope you enjoy talking through them with each other in tutorial.

You should make sure that it is possible attend your tutorial. If you are currently scheduled for a tutorial you cannot attend, you have a limited amount of time to change it. You can use MyUni to block off times in your schedule when you are not available up until the end of Week 2. This can force a change in your tutorial, if your schedule otherwise permits it. However, just because there is a tutorial that fits your schedule, this does not mean you will be allowed to go to that tutorial. It is worth using the web site to request a change several times during this period while other students are settling their schedules and making their own changes, so if you are not reassigned to a tutorial the first time, try again later to see if a spot has opened up. After the end of Week 2, no further changes are possible. Ryan and the tutors are not involved in assigning students to tutorial and will not be able to help you change your schedule.