Around Campus
ADAPTING TO ONLINE LEARNING Mohawk professor Shaun Iles ’04 inspired by his students’ perseverance By Sean Coffey
S
haun Iles ’04 wasn’t sure how his second-year General Arts and Science students would take to having their courses suddenly moved online. A professor of Sociology and Environmental Sustainability and Education Technology Facilitator with the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Shaun is no stranger to using technology in the classroom. He has taught many online classes, but all were planned in advance. When faced with having to move all of his classes online, and do it in a week, his confidence evaporated. Shaun was concerned about how the students would be affected by the sudden and unexpected shift. He was surprised by the result. Shaun’s students were working on assignments that required significant collaboration when the move to online happened in March. The final assignment was a research project that required a significant amount of one-on-one consultation and a lot of group work. To help, Shaun turned to a tool called Discord, which is commonly used by the online gaming community as a forum to discuss strategy. The students adapted to it very quickly, and Shaun was surprised at how quickly he could adapt a course that had only ever been delivered face-to-face to be delivered fully online.
12 INTOUCH | Spring 2019
