COVID-19 AND THE TRANSITION TO ONLINE LEARNING This information comes from “Transition to Online Learning Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: Undergraduate Programs,” by Courtney Adams, and “The CVMBS’s Graduate-level Adaptations to COVID-19,” by Ashli Villarreal.
Fourth-year veterinary students participating in the community connections rotation online.
Learning at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels looked much different as the CVMBS adapted to COVID-19.
Second-year veterinary students practice suturing on synthetic models as their professor watches via Zoom. 4 • 2020 CVMBS Annual Report
In the summer of 2020, the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (CVMBS) Executive Committee was interested in documenting the impressive ways the college met the need to deliver online-only instruction throughout the spring 2020 semester due to COVID-19. To do so, emails sent out by Texas A&M, CVMBS, and the Biomedical Sciences (BIMS) program; syllabi updates on Howdy; and a series of interviews conducted with instructors available to discuss their transition to online learning were collected and integrated to present a holistic picture of the CVMBS’ transition. Most communication about restrictions originated from the university-level and was reiterated at the college and departmental levels to include directions for adapting to the restrictions. These communications began at the end of February 2020 when it first became evident that COVID-19’s impact would reach the United States. By the middle of March, it was clear that to protect students, faculty, and staff, dramatic changes to the CVMBS’ operations would also be needed, quickly. During spring break, all university classes were postponed twice as faculty and staff transitioned to online-only instruction, electing to make their courses synchronous or asynchronous and to either virtually monitor exams or not. Students returned from spring break on March 23 to online classes. Although many courses have been offered predominantly online for years, a difference exists between designing a course for an online environment from the start and moving a traditional, face-to-face course online in the middle of a semester. This transition caused instructors to see a wider distribution of grades in their courses than usual. Despite encountering feelings of disconnect from students, having difficulty creating discussion among students, dealing with confusion about S/U grading, and teaching tactile components of courses remotely, the switch to virtual learning for the year went well overall.
