3.1 - Classroom Decorum

Classroom decorum is a set of behaviors that demonstrate respect for the learning environment and others while in the educational building.  

Students should contribute to the cleanliness of the College by appropriately disposing of all food items, paper, and other trash.  Students using a classroom or laboratory should leave the room as they found it, including returning technology to the default setting or placing furniture in an orderly manner for use by the next occupants of the room.

Classes are in session in the Allied Health Building (OKC) and in the Academic Buildings (Tulsa) from 7:00 am until 10:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Therefore, noise level in hallways, laboratories, classes, lounges, and offices should be kept low to prevent disruption of classes and meetings.  Doors to labs, classes, and common areas should be kept closed to reduce noise.  Computers in labs and classrooms are for educational purposes only and should not be used for entertainment or personal use. 
 

Students are responsible for mastering the content of all courses in which they are enrolled.  Specific requirements for class attendance are provided by the individual course instructor and will be included in the course syllabus.  Attendance is required in all program courses.

When absences affect a student’s coursework, the instructor will schedule a formal meeting with the student and may also impose disciplinary action in accordance with department and university policies.  If absences are excessive, a student may be withdrawn from the program in accordance with university policy.

It is recognized that while in the program, situations may arise that could cause a student to be late to or absent from class or clinic rotation, but those instances should be kept to a minimum.  A professional sense of responsibility to put patients first is required from the outset of the program to develop the professional attitude expected by employers.

Guidelines for notification of absence from a clinic rotation are provided in Section 4, Clinical Education Policies. The following are guidelines for absence from all other programmatic activities:

• A student must contact or leave a message in advance for all faculty in the courses he/she will be absent or tardy, and copy their Program Director. Failure to contact a faculty member may impact a student’s course grade as delineated in the course syllabus.
• If absence will last several days, the student should contact his/her program director to explain the situation and the expected date of return. 
• It is the student’s responsibility to be familiar with absence policies in course syllabi and to contact each course instructor upon return to school regarding options to make up missed work. 
• Students with military or jury duty must inform their program director as soon as possible and provide documentary evidence of the activity.  These students must notify all course faculty of their absence and make advance arrangements for makeup of missed tests, labs, etc.

Make-up activities are at the discretion of each course instructor, including make-up of clinic time  or final examinations.  The faculty member has the authority to assign a grade of “0” for any  assessment or activity when the absence or tardy is unexcused. The faculty member can request documentation of an incident to excuse an absence. 

Students are not allowed to attend classes if they do not submit University training certificates or required documentation to Complio by the due date. Any class activity is considered unexcused when class is missed due to noncompliance. See Section 4: Clinical Education Policies of this handbook for more information on Complio and required documentation. 
 

Information on campus closings is announced by the OU emergency alert system, the television media, the OUHSC or OU-Tulsa home page, and at 405-271-6499 (OKC) or 918-660-3999 (Tulsa). Closings are based on campus location so just because one campus is closed doesn’t mean all campuses are closed. 

If academic units of the Health Sciences Campus or OU-Tulsa Campus are officially closed due to hazardous weather or other conditions, students are excused from attending all didactic courses.  If a single campus is affected, the College computing staff will attempt to initiate video capture of all classroom lectures which are being video-conferenced, so that, at the discretion of the instructor, those class sessions may be made available via video streaming.

Students assigned to be in the clinic setting on the Health Sciences Campus or OU-Tulsa campus when a campus and/or an academic unit is officially closed, are dismissed from clinic. This clinic time is not required to be made up, so long as the closure impacts 3 days of clinic or fewer for seniors and 2 days of clinic or fewer for juniors, during a given semester. 

However, students in clinic are considered professionals-in-training and are learning the responsibilities of health care providers whose services are vital to patients, clinics, and hospitals. Therefore, students are still held responsible for meeting performance and competency requirements for each semester, and as such, fulfillment of these minimum standards may necessitate making up of the allotted clinic time to complete the requirements. 

If a campus is not officially closed, and a student chooses not to attend classes or clinic due to the weather or other conditions, they must follow the policies for notification of absence and will be responsible for making up missed clinic time and appropriate class activities. These absences may be unexcused.  See course syllabus for details related to unexcused absences.

Some clinic affiliates recognize holidays that are not observed by the University. When students are assigned to such a clinic site, they are not responsible for clinic attendance that day but must notify their clinic coordinator of such holidays and attend all scheduled classes.
In the unlikely event that a clinic affiliate unexpectedly closes for equipment updates or other reasons, a student must contact his/her clinic coordinator or program director immediately for assignment to another facility or alternate activity.

Additional policies and procedures of interest to students, general safety, hazardous weather, and emergency services may be found at the Campus Police and Public Safety website.
 

Students are required to have their laptop computers available for examinations and in-class assignments. Students should come to the class with their laptop fully charged and with all required software installed and updated.  The number of available outlets for charging laptops are limited in some classrooms. Should a student come to class without their required laptop, he/she will be expected to retrieve his/her laptop immediately and complete the exam or assignment with what time remains in class.  Forgetting to bring a laptop will not be an acceptable excuse to extend the time period assigned to complete the exam or assignment nor to request a make-up exam or assignment.  IT services have limited laptops that are used for system-testing purposes but those laptops are not distributed on a regular basis to students who forget their laptop. If the examination time permits, a classmate’s laptop may be used to take or complete an exam, however, one should not expect that someone else will make their laptop available. Students are responsible for content missed while retrieving their laptop and the time missed will be considered an unexcused absence. Failure to comply with this policy may result in the student receiving no credit for the exam or assignment.

Students shall not post or forward photos, comments, or any other material of OU faculty, students, clinical personnel, or patients to any social media site, without the person’s written permission or the patient’s written authorization. Any student found to have posted, supplied, or forwarded copyright or protected course materials to online communication sites without written permission or authorization shall be subject to disciplinary action and/or state or federal action.

Students should be especially careful to avoid discussing or sharing any information protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). If HIPAA policy is accidentally breached, the student should report the breech to their PD immediately so steps can be taken to mitigate the incident. 

In addition to being subject to the University’s HIPAA Privacy and Security policies, students are also held to the standards outlined in the MIRS Essential Competency Policy and Document, Zerograde policy and the University Procedures for Handling Breaches of Ethical and Professional Behavior Standards. 
 

Students may be recorded by audio and/or video while attending class or seminars.  These recordings are shared with other classmates and faculty using a secure password protected portal.   Any specific behavior that does not meet the Essential Competencies during these audio and video captures may be used in cases of academic misconduct proceedings. 

Students must request permission to audio or video record any lecture, laboratory or educational occurrence with another individual including faculty, students or clinical personnel.   
 

Department policy recommends, but does not require, that students be allowed to review a graded examination.  Students should generally be permitted to review a graded paper or project within a reasonable time. A two-week limit for reporting grades is considered reasonable.  To provide a fair and consistent testing environment that discourages academic misconduct, departmental faculty may utilize the following standards when conducting proctored tests and quizzes:  

• Time will be given just prior to the start of the examination for faculty to prepare the testing environment.
• Exams must be taken at the time and place indicated by the course instructor.
• For proctored online exams, the course instructor may require a password to access the exam. The password will be provided in the proctored location at the scheduled time.
• Hats or hoodies may not be worn while taking the exam.
• Programmable calculators (including devices such as cell phones or smart watches) are not permitted.
• Instructors will provide scratch paper if needed.
• All electronic communication devices must be stored in a backpack or in a designated area during an exam or quiz and should be turned completely off.
• Book bags, notebooks, flash cards, electronic communication devices and other items must be put away before the exam begins.
• Items other than materials needed for the examination may not be allowed in the testing room.
• Students may not leave the testing room until the exam is completed unless they are acutely ill.
• Students arriving late for an exam must schedule a make-up version of the exam if any student has already completed the assessment and left the testing room prior to the late arrival. Additional penalties may also be imposed for students arriving late to exams.  
• Seating guidelines will be used. 

Faculty in the Department adhere to the University schedule and policy concerning final examinations unless an exception is granted at the beginning of the semester.  Every course will have a final examination unless otherwise announced by the instructor. Early final examinations are prohibited.  When a final examination is given, the student must take the examination unless a makeup examination has been discussed with the course instructor.  A student will not be expected to take more than two final examinations in one day. The OUHSC final examination schedule is published online with additional information listed for each semester.