Considerations for Hosting Guest Lecturers Remotely

You may have had guest speakers or guest lecturers into your class before. Typically, they brought their own material, spoke live to your class, and answered any questions before they left. You, as the instructor, were not responsible for recording the talk, storing the files of the talk, sharing the talk for students outside of the classroom, or saving the presentation materials for others. In remote teaching, you will need to consider many of these factors. Will the presenter be live during a Zoom call? What happens if the bandwidth is insufficient for good dialogue with students? If you record the presentation, where will you store the files of the recording? To help you make these decisions, we’ve prepared a one-pager form to fill out with your guest presenter. This should help you make sure that you both have a common understanding of what to expect.

• Who is the instructor or contact person?
• What is the course, section, program, college, or school relevant to this presentation?
• Where will materials be stored and how will they be shared? Ex: OneDrive, Canvas, Email, etc.
• When will you be recording the presentation? Will students be present (live)? Will the presenter record independently ahead of time?
• What tool will you use? Ex: Panopto, Zoom?
• Does the presenter want their material to be used by you once, many times, for media purposes? What is the context in which you can distribute the material?
• Does the presenter have permission to use the content of their presentation (including copyright and cultural rights)?

If you require more technical language, there are some examples available here for you to consider.

Consider keeping things simple and clear by communicating these expectations first over the phone or video chat, and then writing the agreed upon terms by email. You should keep these agreements for your own records. We have provided a sample form below.

Download the USask form here: Guest Lecturer Consent Privacy and Copyright Form

Thank you to Rayelle Johnston (privacy), Kate Langrell (copyright), and Steven Siciliano (faculty) for their help in developing this form.