ONLINE LECTURE POLICY

Betonica’s principles are based on building a supportive school community. To help foster this community, enable safeguarding and to show respect for each other, teachers and patients, students are asked to keep their videos on for all online sessions. Please read the following document carefully and if you have any questions or queries, please raise it with your Head of Year. Please also note that due to their nature, there are different sets of requirements for online clinics vs. online lectures.

To build this community, ensure students are able to access the full learning opportunity at Betonica and to develop their professionalism as medical herbalists, all students are required to have the following:

Access to a computer with a camera / video function for all online lecture & clinic parts of the course.
A stable internet connection
For clinic sessions, a good quality in-built or external microphone and headphones/earbuds are required.

- Students are not permitted to make audio or visual recordings at any time, nor take screenshots of any lecture or clinic. This is to ensure staff, lecturers and patients retain a safe space where personal information can be shared.
- You are expected to have your video on at all times. The background must not be blurred during patient consultations; for participation and ethical / patient confidentiality reasons.
- Students are required to contribute to all sessions (these are small groups)
- Attendance must be from a private space where there is no risk of breaking confidentiality through being overheard.
- Students must never record or screenshot any part of clinic sessions.
- Please also see the crucial point under ‘Tech Issues’ about online clinic attendance requirements.
More details about dress code, timings and other stipulations can be seen in the
Online Clinic Guidelines & Etiquette
- Ensure you are prepared as if it's a normal seminar day e.g. be ready for check-in in good time.
- Turn on your video. It is helpful and respectful to be able to see each other, just as you would in an in-person class.
  Exceptions:
  - If you have a temporary* limited internet bandwidth, it is ok to not use video for the full day as long as you do the following:
    Private message your teacher to notify them
    You will be expected to turn on your camera for attendance at the beginning of the lecture and after lunch.
    During short breakout sessions with peers you will be required to have your camera on.
- If you wish to maintain personal privacy, you may blur your background or purchase a folding screen/curtain to place behind your chair.
- Please update your name to show who you are
- Sessions are not to be recorded by students.
- Please leave food until break time
- Have your phone on silent and away from you to prevent distractions: Be aware of the disinhibition effect where it can be tempting to do things (like check your phone) that you wouldn’t normally do in an in-person setting.
- Any problems logging in or during the session email the lesson teacher or colleague to flag the issue on your behalf.
- If you have problems with sound, check you have not muted your computer. Disconnect from external speakers such as bluetooth headsets. If the issue is still not resolved, please leave the meeting and rejoin.
- Should you lose your connection for a significant amount of time then you’ll need to email the teacher to alert them, or a colleague to flag the issue on your behalf.
For Online Clinic:
if a student has technical issues, we will always try to support getting things ironed out. However, if the issue is on-going the student may not be allowed to attend clinic sessions until they have remedied these. E.g. sound or picture of problematic quality, unstable internet connection. This is because it is disruptive both to patients and to the group participation element.