Empty Classroom | Photo by Grace Ramsdell | Edited by Kayli Thompson | The Wright State Guardian
Universities across the country are allowing students back on campus and making arrangements for the upcoming fall semester following the coronavirus outbreak in the spring.
Wright State University (WSU) gave professors the option to teach their courses online or in person, and many chose to stay online.
The deciding factor
When deciding to either teach face-to-face in the classroom or fully online, the main reason why professors opted for an online format is for the safety of themselves and their students.
For Art and Art History Professor Karla Huebner, reducing the risk of infection led her to move her Themes in Visual Culture class online.
“I think it is of paramount importance to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff. None of us, barring complete isolation, can be sure at any given time that we are not infected and contagious with this virus. While masks and social distancing are very helpful in containing the spread, they are imperfect, especially indoors, where little can be done to ensure proper ventilation. I cannot know whether I am at high risk, nor whether any of my students are, since any of us may have conditions we are not aware of,” said Huebner.
Other professors found out during the end of last spring semester that their course worked well online.
“The second half of the semester, in the spring, went well. The students were satisfied from what they told me. I had a lot of concerns about how the group project, which is a major feature of the semester, would work. It actually worked very well. So that made me feel more comfortable,” said Mechanical and Materials Engineering Instructor Alysoun Taylor-Hall.
Taylor-Hall also said that moving the Technical Communications for Engineers and Computer Scientists course online meant that other courses that needed to be face-to-face such as labs and technicals would have the space to do so.
For Mathematics and Statistics Instructor Erik Potts, an online format means better and more efficient group work.
“I chose to move online largely because I didn’t feel I would be able to facilitate group work in person with all the restrictions compared to online,” said Potts.
Asynchronous vs. synchronous
With the option to move courses online, professors also had the option for their courses to either be asynchronous (no set meet time) or synchronous (set meet time).
For Taylor-Hall and Potts, a synchronous online course is crucial for the group work aspect of their courses.
In addition to group work, Taylor-Hall points out that group discussions are beneficial to students as well.
“When you have a classroom full of twenty-five students they’re all learning from each other’s questions,” said Taylor-Hall regarding the importance of group discussions.
According to Huebner, who chose an asynchronous format, not set meet time allows students to work at their own pace. Huebner plans on recording lectures and captioning them for hard-of-hearing students.
Ways courses have changed
To ensure that students are getting the most out of online courses, professors have modified and changed their assignments.
“I tried to come up with some new assignments that could be very flexible, such as finding online museum exhibitions to discuss, and watching online lectures from YouTube created by museums and other entities. My face-to-face classes have always included discussion during lectures and I shifted to spending each morning responding to student discussion board posts,” said Huebner.
Taylor-Hall and Potts both plan on using break-out rooms and other online tools to create the same group work atmosphere that would happen in a face-to-face course.
