Faculty have spent the past few months adjusting their coursework to comply with social distancing guidelines, but some are still concerned about the return to campus. Credit: Max Garrison | Asst. Campus Editor
With powerpoints uploaded and Zoom invitations sent, returning to campus this fall not only looks different for students but for faculty as well.
Although faculty have spent the past few months adapting their in-person and online coursework to fit COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, some still have concerns over the return to campus.
James Onate, an associate professor of health and rehabilitation sciences, said that above all else, his main goal is for his students to feel comfortable. He is teaching a combination of in-person and online classes, including an introduction to athletic training course.
“I’m less nervous about my health and welfare, and I’m more nervous about other students and other faculty,” Onate said. “I’m just hoping that everybody kind of takes care of their inner circle so that the big circle is taken care of.”
Onate said that he usually encourages students, especially first-years, to branch out and get to know people in his courses, but it will be challenging to form those connections and share his emotions over Zoom.
Onate said he made adjustments to his syllabus to ensure students have multiple options for completing coursework. Most of his classes are synchronous so students can maintain a routine and count on his undivided attention at a set time each week. He said he is doing a lot more front-end planning for virtual instruction than he usually would for in-person classes.
“My preparation is, I feel like, almost like 10 times more because we’re online,” Onate said.
Benjamin McKean, an associate professor of political science, is teaching fully online. His classes will have both synchronous and asynchronous components because he understands that some students won’t have reliable internet access or may face other barriers due to virtual instruction. Synchronous courses are scheduled and held real-time while asynchronous courses have no live component and students work at their own pace.
“We’re still in the middle of a pandemic. I have no idea what other demands there are on people’s time,” McKean said.
At the same time, McKean said he will offer optional synchronous times for the class to convene virtually.
“I wanted to make sure that they did really have that opportunity to interact with me and with each other and that it would be a worthwhile experience for the people who, you know, literally and figuratively have the bandwidth to deal with that stuff,” McKean said.
McKean said that he has concerns about returning to campus, especially after the outbreaks that occurred when students returned to the University of North Carolina and the University of Notre Dame.
The University of Notre Dame moved classes online for at least two weeks after its case count more than doubled within the span of one day; at the time of publication, it had 448 confirmed cases since Aug. 3.??
The University of North Carolina began classes Aug. 10 and transitioned to all online classes less than 10 days into the semester, according to their website. At the time of publication, the university has had 633 positive student and 11 positive employee cases since Aug. 12.?
“We don’t have any model yet of a place that has pulled it off successfully,” McKean said.
In addition to adapting his course material for an online format, McKean said he has added a clause to his syllabus stating that the safety and well-being of students is a priority. He said he expects this fall may be similar to when Ohio State first shifted to online instruction during spring semester and he plans to be flexible with students and their challenges.
“I had students test positive in the spring, people without Wi-Fi, people that would be accessing class from the car when they were in the parking lot of a hospital because their family members were sick,” McKean said.
McKean is a member of the American Association of University Professors at Ohio State, an organization that submitted a letter to The Lantern expressing concern about the university’s return to campus plans and Together as Buckeyes pledge.
Melissa Conrath, a senior lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies, is also teaching all of her classes online this semester. She said that normally she is at K-12 schools in a clinical setting with teachers working towards their master’s degree and principal license. This year, she will supervise them virtually.
Conrath said that her daughter contracted COVID-19 in April while working as a teacher. As everyone returns to campus, she said she worries most about the variability in case severity — with some individuals experiencing no symptoms and others requiring medical attention.
Despite her concerns, Conrath said there may be a silver lining to the disruption COVID-19 has caused. She said the shift to virtual learning has required instructors to become better versed with technology, benefiting education overall.
“I always like to say that there’s something good to come out of everything,” Conrath said. “In the movement towards effectively using technology, we’ve made some strides that would have taken much longer had we not faced this.”
