Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, professors at the University of Oregon and other schools across the nation have had to learn new methods of teaching remotely, deal with the anxieties of students and families, redesign and in some cases even completely overhaul their courses — all within the span of a few weeks.
But some UO professors are using remote classes as a chance to experiment with new ideas while still overcoming various logistical hurdles.
“Even though we’re trying the best to give the same experience, the logistics on this have been challenging,” said theatre professor Jeanette deJong.
UO moved all spring term classes online on March 19. About two weeks earlier, the school had canceled in-person finals for winter term and moved only the first three weeks of spring term classes online. And most recently, on April 14, UO announced that all of its summer classes would be held online.
Stitching it together
Professor deJong had been preparing for the possibility of spring term being held remotely.
When UO canceled in-person finals for winter term, she had to change the final for one of her introductory theatre classes that had her students design and style a face of makeup within a set time limit. Instead, she asked her students to apply their faces at home and snap some photos to her email. Now, she’s following a similar process for her students this term.
“The big difference is, I won’t see them in person,” deJong said. “I’ll have to go with photos of them.” Not seeing students in person makes it difficult, deJong said, since she won’t be able to give immediate feedback on how to correctly apply their makeup or stitch a piece of fabric.
For her sewing unit, deJong mailed more than a dozen of her students the tools they needed: needles, thread, fabrics like flannel and muslin, hooks and a bit of beeswax to coat thread with. (“It makes the sewing go easier,” deJong said.)
She did have to make other compromises with her curriculum to fit the remote nature of the course. For one, instead of demonstrating techniques to her class using sewing machines, deJong and her graduate assistant recorded videos of her hand-sewing techniques and uploaded them online.
“This is definitely the most unusual version of this I’ve ever done,” deJong said.
Keeping the lights on
UO theatre instructor Janet Rose went through a similar predicament with her stage lighting class. Normally, the class uses the stages in the Miller Theatre Complex, where students practice directing lights, experiment with different colors and practice using the computerized equipment. But for a remote format, she’s had to change her class a lot.
“Obviously, we’re not doing any of that here,” Rose said.
For one assignment where students would choreograph a set of lights to a piece of music, Rose’s students drafted the movements with pencil and paper and also downloaded some lighting software that’s used in the theatre.
“They won’t be turning the lights on and off,” Rose said, “but they’ll be able to see the key functions of how to turn on a specific set of lights.”
Bring your ‘A’ game
UO media studies professor Amanda Cote is using her love of gaming for her Media and Masculinities course. She gave her students more than a dozen different assignments at the outset of the class. Each assignment holds a point value and students have to collect at least 900 points to reach the A range. The teaching style is called gameful learning — a theory that students will have better learning outcomes if they take more control over their learning experience, treating it like a challenging game rather than a traditionally structured course.
This is the first time Cote has used this method at UO, but she said it wouldn’t be her last. She said these extreme circumstances were a perfect time to try it out on her “organized and motivated” small SOJC honors class of 20.
“The goal is to give all of us a feeling of control or autonomy over what the class is, because right now, I think we’re in a moment where we feel a loss of that control, a loss of autonomy,” Cote said.
Digital media goes mobile
Journalism instructor Lisa Heyamoto teaches Gateway to Media, an introductory sequence for students to learn basic multimedia skills through completing photography, videography and audio projects about local community members. But this term, stay-at-home orders from various states across the country have made in-person interviews untenable. This makes it difficult for students to learn how to cold-call sources, write questions and act professionally during interviews.
But Heyamoto has found a few workarounds. Since the SOJC’s equipment checkout room, called the J-cage, is closed, Heyamoto is asking students to use their smartphones to replace the usual Nikon Coolpix 7100 cameras, Sunpak tripods or Zoom H4n audio recorders.
“There wasn’t much of a thought process because we just knew we weren’t going to have access to the cage,” Heyamoto said of deciding to pivot to mobile. “We’ve got students who are all over the United States and even all over the world. So the pivot to mobile was a really easy decision.”
And Heyamoto has also had to adjust several assignments. Instead of the usual exercise where students leave Allen Hall and interview strangers on the street, her students need to call three randomly assigned classmates — a similar assignment that she says teaches students to get used to cold-calling sources.
Feeling the burn — in your own home
The UO Department of Physical Education and Recreation had to cancel a number of its courses, such as classes like backpacking, scuba diving and any others with certifications would be too difficult to teach remotely, Associate Director of PE and Rec Chantelle Russell said.
But other courses saw massive over-enrollment due to COVID-19. Russell said a meditation class nearly doubled its normal class size for the spring term.
“We’ve just really opened up the opportunity for people and empowering students to do this independently,” Russell said. “That’s one of the things that’s always so great about PE classes is there’s accountability because attendance is required. But now people are at home and it’s like a total honor system.”
Russell’s hoping this self-accountability while learning remotely will instill good habits in students that will last long after the term is over.
