As classes have switched to remote learning, the value of in-person instruction has become even clearer.
“The high-touch, human-to-human, head-to-head type of learning is gone,” says Craig Caldwell, dean of the SLCC School of Science, Mathematics and Engineering, about going virtual-only. “Mastery comes with the human touch, the human expression, the human ability to seek metaphor and allegory, the human ability to use humor, the human ability to improvise experience and story. So, the question of adapting to virtual delivery is really a question about which courses are structured so as to convey information in a digital format.”
Figuring out how to deliver experiential-focused courses in a meaningful way virtually hasn’t been easy, but SLCC faculty and staff are doing their best to make it work across several disciplines.
Melaney Birdsong Farr, who teaches anatomy and physiology, started by making a video, starring her beloved Golden Retriever Superfly, to reassure students “…this was hard for all of us, but that we’d get there.” She has successfully used Facebook to engage students in group discussions via posts, mock quizzes and live study sessions hosted by student aides and faculty. The aide-led anatomy page on Facebook has about 640 members and the newer physiology page is growing with about 90 members. “I’m not exactly sure why it works, other than the hypothesis that student-led sessions are less intimidating,” she says from her home in Salt Lake City. “They’re informal and relaxed, lots of jokes and memes. There are 10-15 aides in the group, and they’re quick to answer questions and post study resources.”
Birdsong Farr also uses Facebook to alert students, some of whom lost jobs, to SLCC Food Pantry offerings, emergency student funding opportunities through SLCC and vetted job openings when they come up. “Students are missing being in cadaver labs, but we’ve got tons of virtual content prepped for them over the years, and we’ve tried to make the experience as high-quality as possible,” Birdsong Farr says. “I miss my students. I learn from them. They have experiences that I don’t, and their questions and comments give the material life. So, although I hope I’m effective at communicating on my end, it loses something crucial when it’s a monologue.”
A few silver linings these days include more time with family, more walks for her dogs and access to her web-developer husband’s decked out office/studio, which is also soundproof and set up for recording music – she records videos there for her classes, complete with cool guitars hanging in the background. She also shares a “silly” list with colleagues supporting each other in a Facebook group called Higher Ed and the Coronavirus. Here are a few of her observations of virtual instruction:
- I touch my face at least once every 12 seconds.
- Students really don’t mind my dogs photobombing the videos.
- I say, “Does that make sense?” probably 30 times per lecture, even when there’s nobody in the room to answer.
- I wave my hands around like a penguin directing a choir.
- I speak almost exclusively in run-on sentences. When I don’t, I speak in metaphors or bad analogies.