Taking into account the current social situation, the Foreign Language Laboratory (FLL) has established a set of safety guidelines on the use of CALL classrooms in the 2021 academic year. Please conduct your classes conforming to them.
A. Principles of class implementation
(1) Room occupancy is capped at 50% of available seating for face-to-face classes. [For regular classrooms, the cut off is 65%, but the university has confirmed the technical necessity to lower the limit for CALL rooms.]
(2) If the number of enrolled students in a class using a CALL classroom exceeds the 50% limit, teachers are to conduct the class by Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) teaching (= face-to-face teaching with synchronous online teaching). [Please feel free to contact the FLL about this.]
(3) MeetUp (from Logicool), a web camera designed for HyFlex teaching, will be installed in all the CALL rooms.
(4) For HyFlex classes, regular classrooms can be provided at the same time in order for students to attend those courses on campus, which will be arranged by the FLL and Kyomuka/Gakumuka.
Note: Please let the FLL know if you wish to reserve an additional classroom by Friday, March 12.
(5) In order to attend a HyFlex course from a regular classroom, students should bring their own computer or borrow one from the AIM (= the Aoyama Gakuin Institute of Information and Media).
(6) Both faculty and students are required to use both masks and face shields in the CALL classrooms. (However, faculty members may use their discretion). Face shields will be provided by the university and distributed in the CALL classrooms.
(7) Students are strongly encouraged to bring their own headsets (earphones with a microphone). Headsets will NOT be connected to the computers by default. Should students fail to bring their own, they will be able to borrow disinfected headsets from the FLL Office (Aoyama Campus) or Academic Information Services (Sagamihara Campus). [The microphones for the headsets/earphones should have 3.5 diameter 3-pole stereo mini plug. Most earphones (with a microphone) that come with new smartphones cannot be used. Contact the FLL for details.]
B. Equipment Support
(8) Acrylic boards separating the seating areas in the CALL classrooms, and ones shielding the teacher from the students will not be installed because they were not expected to be particularly effective. However, please feel free to contact the FLL to have them installed should there be special circumstances.
(9) Air circulators will be operating in each classroom to facilitate sufficient ventilation.
(10) Doors and windows should be left open to ensure adequate ventilation at the beginning, during, and at the end of class.
(11) Trash receptacles will be placed in each CALL classroom for the disposal of the OA sterilization sheets, etc.
OA disinfection sheets, a rubbing alcohol dispenser for disinfecting hands, and microphone covers made from a non-woven fabric will be provided in each CALL classroom. [We ask for your cooperation in the disposal of those sheets.]
(12) Disinfectant will be applied to switches, doorknobs, desks, and chairs in each classroom by the staff responsible for cleaning the rooms.
(13) The island-type CALL classrooms at the Aoyama Campus will maintain their current specifications. That is, they will not be changed back to the traditional configuration, although this had been considered as a safety precaution. At the Sagamihara Campus, the island-type seating will be changed to the traditional for the time being.
For more information, please feel free to contact the Foreign Language Laboratory: fll [at] aoyamagakuin.jp.
Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.
Updated: March 4, 2021
The following are supplements that have been made by the English Department.
(i) Regarding (3) above, all the computers (both teachers’ and students’) are equipped with the Webex and Zoom meeting systems. (We are afraid, however, that student computers are not connected to a web camera by default. If students need to participate in web meetings from a CALL classroom, they will need to bring their own web camera (if they have one) or borrow one from the FLL each time.
(ii) Regarding (4) above, one criterion for whether you should make a request for an extra conventional classroom may be whether you intend to have students NOT in the CALL classroom do interactional activities with those students simultaneously in your CALL classroom. If you intend to do that, please request one. (It is true that for students it will be more convenient if they have another room irrespective of what they do in the class, though.) When you make a request, which should be made directly to the FLL, please do so giving the campus(es), day(s), period(s) when you teach.
(iii) Regarding (7) above, acrylic boards may be set up at your request but the installation will be completed at the end of April, at the earliest.
