Associate Professor of Marketing Todd Green used music and discussion to engage students and remove barriers sometimes brought on by virtual learning.
desktop REAL SUCCESS:
HOW GOODMAN STAFF AND STUDENTS PERSEVERED IN A VIRTUAL WORLD By Tiffany Mayer
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ivot was easily a contender for word of the year in 2020. And few had to adjust as quickly and readily to changes brought on by the pandemic as educators. There are many ways Goodman faculty and staff adjusted to the new reality, however, making the Business School a shining example of pandemic-age education. Here are just a few.
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GOODMAN: THE MAGAZINE
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CONNECTING OVER A SONG
Todd Green struggled when he switched to online learning in the spring. The Associate Professor of Marketing was more nervous talking into his laptop than he ever was at the front of his class. He missed the visual cues that students understood what he was saying, or whether they were listening at all. A few course reviews at the end of the winter term tipped Green off to just how challenging virtual instructing had been for all involved. So when his spring term MBA introductory marketing course started, Green checked in with his students, most of them overseas, and learned how much they missed connecting with each other and their professors. Green took it upon himself to make virtual lectures as close to interacting IRL as possible by setting aside 10 minutes to talk about anything but school. He’d ask students to post a GIF describing how they felt that day. Sometimes they would talk about their dream jobs or ideal vacations. Next came connecting over a song. Green, who leads a children’s choir and plays drums, performed solos that inspired students to show off their own musical skills, including singing for each other. Between the questions and the performances, it removed the barriers brought on by talking into a laptop and helped classmates get to know each other differently. “I feel like people were more willing to share and open up because other people had sung for them, which is a fairly vulnerable thing,” Green said. “I think it just opened people up to each other.”
