NAVIGATING A NEW LANDSCAPE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

In the spring of 2020, higher education institutions had to pivot, much like everything else in the world, with the COVID-19 pandemic. While many universities had some experience teaching both online and in hybrid models, not all classes, classrooms, or faculty members were conducive with these new platforms.

Universities had to quickly adapt and respond to fully online and interactive systems. Faculty members had to adjust their courses and find ways to deliver their curriculum in new and innovative ways.

As we now examine the current state of the higher education sector, it is essential to be agile in accommodating the changing environment.

Nistler College faculty members, Rob Warren, Instructor of Marketing, Dr. Paul Sum, Professor of Political Science & Public Administration, and Dr. Tammy Gerszewski, Clinical Professor of Accountancy, each took different pedagogical approaches and had unique takeaways from the pandemic.

A major outcome for Warren was finding new ways to help students learn and receive immediate feedback. “The introduction of AI concepts has really aided in this area,” says Warren.

Warren also learned to create mini lectures on key points. Warren indicated that at the start of COVID the standard practice was to record a 50- or 75-minute lecture and post it for students to watch. Warren says it quickly became apparent that this was not working.

He says, “I drew on my experience working in electronic news gathering and started producing shorter mini-lectures that covered one or two topics like a news story.”

To supplement these lectures Warren uses external resources. “Social media is one of my favorite areas to use,” says Warren.

“COVID sped up the change I saw coming when it comes to interacting with students,” says Warren. “Students, like most members of the Gen Y or Gen Z, are addicted to mobile devices.”

Prior to COVID, Warren says, he tried to discourage the use of them, but now he has learned to embrace them and integrate them into class.

For Dr. Paul Sum, the COVID adjustment was not a single event but a sequence of events that impacted his teaching.

“The first was the immediate shutdown of the University, which forced us all to teach remotely for the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester. The second was returning for the Fall 2020 semester when the University was under tight restrictions, but limited in-person interactions were permitted with social distancing and masking,” says Dr. Sum.

During the second phase, he indicated that the biggest hurdle was the limits placed on the number of students allowed in a room, generally one-third of capacity. “For me, that meant 14 students and I could be in a room designed to hold 50 students,” says Dr. Sum.

Dr. Sum indicated the third phase was Fall 2022, when the masking requirements remained in place, but some of the social distancing was relaxed so that room capacities returned to preCOVID levels.

“I adjusted my teaching delivery and course organization for each of the phases, retaining certain elements from one phase to another. I found that technology had progressed in a way that enhanced my ability to teach and opened new possibilities for student engagement in courses. While I cannot say COVID was a positive force, I did innovate in ways that improved student experiences overall,” says Dr. Sum.

During the first phase of the shutdown, Dr. Sum was able to change his course to a Zoom-only format fairly seamlessly due to his experience with hybrid formats at the graduate level. He modified assignments to better serve students in a virtual format and recorded lectures to allow for flexibility.

Dr. Sum indicated that the second phase allowed for more planning and provided the opportunity for some students to attend in class. In Fall 2020, he offered only 100- and 200-level courses and felt he needed closer contact with students.

Dr. Sum organized his courses through a seminar format.

“Each course met three days per week (MWF). I divided each class randomly into three groups (ABC). Group A was required to attend ’seminar‘ on Mondays, Group B on Wednesdays, and Group C on Fridays. Each group had 14 students, which fit the social distancing requirements of the room. Students could attend in person or via Zoom, but the total number of students would not exceed 14,” says Dr. Sum

Dr. Sum says the seminars were improved through his introduction of discussion boards where he asked students to summarize and comment on readings and lectures before class.

When the third phase hit, Dr. Sum was able to conduct in-person classes. “Still, some students were hesitant to return to the classroom, and others were expected to miss extended periods due to illness. Thus, I retained the Zoom options for all students,” says Dr. Sum.

Dr. Sum will keep a number of adaptations he developed during the pandemic and will continue to refine his course delivery and assignments to meet the evolving needs of students.

Some of the elements he will continue include having a Zoom (distance) option in all of his courses, offering assignments that accommodate distance students, fully utilizing the available technology, and making better use of group work through video calls.

With his “seminar” formats, Dr. Sum is using this general approach for lowerlevel courses as a new process to cover material for that day while reinforcing other concepts and ideas from the week.

Much like Dr. Sum and Warren, Dr. Tammy Gerszewski also had to quickly pivot over spring break 2020 in preparation for online teaching. Dr. Gerszweski says that she used that week to enhance her digital communication and teaching strategies with Zoom, Yuja, and Blackboard.

Dr. Gerszewski moved all of her exams to Blackboard with Zoom live monitoring. With students being in different time zones, she prepared mini-lectures and recorded problem-solving exercises. She posted these to Blackboard for students to view and use as guides to solving their homework assignments. Dr. Gerszewski held virtual office hours and conducted individual meetings with her senior/ graduate course students so she could understand from their perspectives what was or was not working.

“All my feedback was positive –students loved the short video lectures and the individual meetings!” says Dr. Gerszewski.

When Fall 2020 came around, Dr. Gerszewski conducted live lectures with Zoom and Wacom technology. “While students were home on their computer ’Zooming‘ into the class, I was in the classroom teaching the material. The challenge here was letting students know that I was aware of them even though they were not physically in class,” says Dr. Gerszewski.

In the 2021-22 academic year, Dr. Gerszewski decided to have her courses meet in person. “They enjoyed being back in the classroom. However, understanding that students could and would likely get sick, I wanted to continue to utilize the teaching modalities previously utilized,” says Dr. Gerszewski.

Dr. Gerszweski prepared mini lecture/ problem tutorials for the course and posted them on Blackboard for students to access. She explains, “Feedback from my past students indicated that it was much easier for them to digest the ’snippet‘ videos versus watching a 50-minute lecture/problem tutorial of the live class.”

When reflecting on what she learned during these unprecedented times, Dr. Gerszewski says, “I love having students in the classroom!”

She also found that students enjoyed the lecture and problem-solving videos, that she was able to learn new teaching tools and apply them across courses, and that she could be flexible with adding new teaching tools on the fly.

When looking to the future, Dr. Gerszewksi will expect students to attend class in person, but she will continue to utilize and create lecture and tutorial videos as they are beneficial and requested by students. “I will likely expand these to cover more topics and post these materials daily,” says Dr. Gerszewski.

Nistler College faculty demonstrated exceptional resiliency and remained dedicated to finding the best delivery for their courses during this time of monumental changes in the higher education landscape.

The new Nistler Hall will be equipped with flexible learning environments with over half of the classrooms designed as active learning classrooms. All classrooms will be outfitted with enhanced technology to allow for hybrid class structures, enabling more online and interactive learning systems.

While COVID-19 may have catapulted the higher education system into more online pedagogical systems, our faculty will continue to evaluate and optimize the best way to deliver various courses and develop increasingly purposeful learning platforms.