In Brief
Transition Team of that, but also helpful. It takes time and energy, but that’s why we’re professors.” Faculty member and Experiential Education Director Kristen Holmquist was relieved to have her doubts allayed. “What I love about teaching is the human interaction, those moments of connection,” she says. “But classroom discussion still felt lively and I was able to take advantage of some Zoom functions to get the students to interact with one another even more than they usually would.” —Andrew Cohen
QUICK PIVOT: Nomi Conway ’20 had to recalibrate on the fly.
“ The adjustment went smoothly because of the focus on community that Berkeley fosters so well.” —Nomi Conway ’20
BRITTANY HOSEA-SMALL (LAPTOP); ALEX PORTER (CONWAY)
On March 12, just three days after Berkeley Law announced all classes would be taught online because of COVID-19, Nomi Conway ’20 sat anxiously at her kitchen table with classmate Paul von Autenried. Students in Tejas Narechania’s Colloquium on the Court and Judicial Process, they now had to give their workshop presentation — to classmates, scholars, and judges — on Zoom. “Given the course’s intimate nature, I was skeptical when I learned we’d have to transition everything online,” Conway concedes. “But Paul and I were shocked by how well it went. The adjustment went smoothly because of the focus on community that Berkeley fosters so well.” Narechania helped navigate Zoom’s breakout room feature to facilitate small-group discussions, and students participated eagerly. “They did a great job adapting and remained committed to the class,” he says. Narechania’s other spring-semester course, Regulated Digital Industries, was a fitting Zoom forum given its focus on telecommunications regulations. “I still called on students and expected them to engage. But instead of saying ‘turn to page 455,’ I’d put that page on the screen and highlight the relevant text, or draw network diagrams in the Zoom whiteboard,” he says. “That’s not to say it wasn’t tough for some students. I saw it as part of my job to not only be understanding
Nuggets from the School Community
Berkeley Law Transcript Fall 2020 3
