5 minute read
Pandemic pivot
AMID THE COVID-19 CHAOS AND CLOSURES, UNPRECEDENTED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES ARISE.
By Matt Watson
MSU Denver dance student Adriana Gonzales-Cortez works with her instructors, including Nicole Predki, left, via internet video conferencing from her home.
COVID-19 forced Metropolitan State University of Denver to rapidly shift to remote learning this past spring, complicating coursework and putting on-time completion of degrees at risk.
But in true Roadrunner style, faculty, staff and students pivoted, innovated and formed partnerships to not just satisfy academic requirements but to thrive while also helping Colorado weather the pandemic’s onslaught.
DANCE, EVERYWHERE
A pirouette requires a dancer to spin in circles on one foot, a single point anchored to the ground. It requires tremendous coordination and precision. Completing a college education in a pandemic is similar to that pirouette — it’s easy to get turned around but incredibly difficult to maintain one’s balance, especially without a strong anchor.
When the University’s Dance Program went remote, co-coordinator Nicole Predki was her students’ anchor, tailoring individual dance exercises and projects for each of them. They in turn recorded video clips of their work to be shared with their instructors and classmates.
Dancing in lockdown was eye-opening, said dance major Katy Gallagher.
“I could choose things that are particular to my body and my dance experience,” she said. “I actually spent more time dancing at home than I did dancing at school. Being in my own space allowed me to focus on things I wasn’t able to do before.”
The isolation inspired dance student Adriana Gonzales-Cortez to express the pandemic through movement performed in empty parking lots close to her home.
“At first, I was just thinking about dancing in a big space while social distancing,” she said. “But after filming it, we noticed how desolate it was. So that definitely added another element to the dance: loneliness. I wanted to dance how I felt.”
Quarantine also produced new opportunities for digital collaboration, Predki said. Several dance students teamed up with MSU Denver’s Music Department for a virtual performance series, in which dancers and members of the University’s Chorale recorded their parts remotely and edited them together.
“It reminded me of the resilience of humanity and our ability to adapt,” she said. “It was such an inspiration to see students work through those challenges and use these creative skills and see them in action. It was an inspiration to the teachers.”
FUTURE NURSES, TESTED
MSU Denver nursing students need 180 practicum hours of clinical placement to graduate, but COVID-19 closures resulted in most rotational placements being canceled, endangering the addition to the workforce of a critical supply of nurses during a pandemic.
Theresa Buxton, Ph.D., R.N., chair of the University’s Department of Nursing, moved fast to form a partnership with STRIDE, a Federally Qualified Health Center providing primary care and other health-related services in suburban Denver, where Accelerated Nursing Option students could earn their practicum hours. The partnership put students such as Micahla Cowles on the front lines of the pandemic administering coronavirus tests.
“There was no room for error,” Cowles said. “Fortunately, there
was an amazing team of professionals at STRIDE who developed a system to serve people quickly and accurately. Getting to work alongside them and be part of that effort was truly incredible.”
The partnership with STRIDE is great way to reimagine nurse- patient care as a practice that extends outside a hospital, Buxton said.
“Having (students) complete their senior practicum with STRIDE Community Health Center makes perfect sense,” she said, “as these kinds of clinical opportunities prepare them for the role of a professional registered nurse.”
MONEY LOST, LESSONS LEARNED
An Advanced Investment Management course offered in the spring, the first of its kind at MSU Denver, gave students the chance to manage portfolios with actual funds from the MSU Denver Foundation. Students set up funds in two groups, working within each group — first in person, then remotely — to develop an investment philosophy, choose stocks and review holdings with finance lecturer Adam Schor.
“This course required us to do research and come prepared to debate and defend our position on why something would make a good addition to our portfolio,” said finance major Elijah Black. “It was important to do the research because we were dealing with real funds in this project and not a “We were portfolio filled with fake money.” The unfortunate timing of dealing with the investment project, which kicked off in mid-February real funds. . . just as COVID-19 cases started popping up in the U.S., gave not a students experience in portfolio management during an extreme portfolio economic downturn. Both groups performed very closely to their benchmark funds. “While the markets were difficult, the course was sucfilled with fake money.” cessful. Our goal was to expose students to the world of investment management and, more broadly, to the world of financial services,” Schor said. “The performance over two months is pleasing but not the important story. We have laid a foundation for a course that will benefit the University, the foundation, alumni, employers and, most important, the students who participate.”
Additional reporting by Cory Phare and Joseph Rios.
ALYSON MCCLARAN
Online, down the line
The numbers are in: 97% of Roadrunners were actively engaged in their online courses in early April, based on their usage of the University’s online learning platform three weeks after transitioning off-campus.
The spring semester bolstered MSU Denver’s online learning portfolio, said Matt Griswold, associate vice president of Online Learning at MSU Denver. Faculty members completed more than 1,000 hours of training with the University’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Design. Professors reported that the online course design process was going to improve their face-to-face courses as well.
“No question about it, we leapt forward in terms of the understanding of the value of online learning and the flexibility it provides our students, adding to the number of online offerings and enhancing the quality of those offerings,” Griswold said.
During the same time, Colorado K-12 students were getting online learning exposure in the spring as well, Griswold pointed out. As a result, future college students were increasing their competency in and exposure to online learning.
Alex Peirano, an MSU Denver student-teacher in the Jefferson County School District, had a similar revelation about remote teaching improving her overall instruction. Adapting her lessons so the same material could be taught online or in person sharpened her planning skills and forced her to be a better teacher, she said.
“This is going to help education tremendously and really highlight the importance of a classroom and what that does for students’ learning,” Peirano said.
