DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELING
Innovating new approaches and making the most of COVID’s virtual challenges. When a crisis like COVID hits, it’s admirable to take your lemons and make lemonade. But Marieb College’s Department of Counseling went one step further when it came to adjusting to the virtual environment. When hit with lemons, they made lemonade, lemon tarts, lemon chicken and lemon drops. Then they replanted all the lemon seeds. One innovation is what is described as a flipped classroom. When classes went virtual, department head Dr. Suzanne Dugger had the idea to keep normally scheduled classroom times, but not for instruction. Instead, she did the extra work to record her lectures for viewing before class time. Then when class time came around, everyone met online to ask questions, do application exercises and discuss what they learned. That made class time more interactive and students were able to view the lecture again, if needed. The result? “The best evaluations I’ve ever had,” says Dugger. “This could change the way classes are taught in the future.” Another discovery in the virtual space was how underutilized Zoom had been in the past. Using it for faculty meetings added a new level of collaboration among staff and Zoom’s many tools added depth to the meetings not easily achieved in person. The level of collaboration pushed strategic talks forward. As Dugger says, “We became a really cohesive team. Not only did we survive, but we also completed a strategic planning process and have exciting plans for the future, including a proposed Ph.D. program in Counselor Education and Supervision.”
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MARIEB COLLEGE OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
