HOW TECH TICKS
SPACED OUT CREATIVE, EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING opportunities are central to the Virginia Tech experience. So when restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic altered the day-to-day routines of campus life and learning, students, faculty, and administrators innovated, restructuring traditional classrooms and lecture halls. Different in-classroom arrangements were used to maximize space, while staying safe, and Hans Robinson, a professor in the Department of Physics, provided resources, including a slide presentation and a software program to support departments in reconfiguring layouts specific to variances in classroom shapes and instructional needs. Many Hokies also took teaching outside and into campus spaces, developing what some might call avant-garde academic areas. 24 | DRILLFIELD | HOW TECH TICKS
During a time when many universities across the country were forced to return to fully online learning due to outbreaks of COVID-19, Virginia Tech successfully completed the fall semester as planned. In total, 360 courses were held in-person and 1,604 courses followed a hybrid model, having some level of in-person activities, this fall. To date, the Virginia Department of Health has not see evidence of the transmission of COVID-19 in those classrooms or laboratories during the fall semester, according to Noelle Bissell, health director of the New River Health District. TW
ELBOW ROOM For videos and more information about how Virginia Tech faculty and students adapted spaces to maintain physical distancing, visit vtmag.vt.edu. RM
THROUGH A LOOKING GLASS: (above) Throughout campus, labs, classrooms, and other spaces were rearranged to accommodate distancing guidelines. In the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, colorful plexiglass panels were installed between workspaces. The individual spaces with see-through partitions helped create a studio environment that, while different, maintained an atmosphere conducive to student's design needs.
