Concordia University says lectures from dead professor were 'teaching tool'
MONTREAL - Concordia University says there should have been no confusion about who was teaching an online class after a student said he was surprised to discover the professor delivering the video lectures had died in 2019.
Aaron Ansuini, a student at the Montreal university, wrote in a series of recent posts on Twitter that he enjoyed the lectures by Francois-Marc Gagnon, who he assumed was the professor of his online art history class.
Ansuini wrote that he searched for Gagnon's email address in order to ask the professor a question but instead found an obituary.
University spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci says the course listing, as well as communications with students, made it clear that the class was being taught by a different instructor and Gagnon's lectures were an added teaching tool.
However, Maestracci says the biography of Gagnon included in the course material has now been updated to reflect his death.
While all classes at the university have moved online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the art history class was offered through a pre-existing platform for online courses.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2021.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.