EIGHT MONTHS AFTER THE PANDEMIC SCATTERED STUDENTS FAR FROM CAMPUS,\u00a0the virtual \u201csandboxes\u201d where faculty tested remote-teaching technology have evolved. A lot.<\/p>\n
Those \u201csandboxes\u201d are now the brick-and-mortar classrooms themselves.<\/p>\n
In March, Diane Boyd and Ben Haywood, executive director and assistant director, respectively, of Furman\u2019s Faculty Development Center, met virtually with 200 faculty members in five days\u00a0for a crash course on remote instruction.\u00a0Over the summer, nearly 100 faculty further participated in course redesign workshops and seminars to experiment with online and blended learning techniques, refining and expanding on what they had to learn so quickly in the spring.<\/p>\n
Now that most Furman students are back on campus for the fall semester, the work that Furman faculty and staff began as the coronavirus spread in March has ramped up, both in preparation and new technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing teaching demonstrations in super blinged-out classrooms,\u201d says Boyd.<\/p>\n
Learning Technology Services, a unit of\u00a0Information Technology Services, has\u00a0rapidly\u00a0outfitted every classroom with remote-ready capabilities, including a\u00a0wall-mounted\u00a0camera that\u00a0can pan to provide views of every angle of the classroom, a camera\u00a0integrated in the teaching station computer for most classrooms that crisply shows instructors as they explain material, microphones and speakers that allow\u00a0clear communication and interaction between face-to-face and remote students, and an integrated\u00a0document camera, which acts as a whiteboard that allows students attending class virtually to\u00a0see the instructor\u2019s annotated documents, diagrams, notes or calculations.<\/p>\n
Some faculty are re-examining their pre-COVID-19 practices. For instance, how do you give an exam to students who are not all sitting together in a shared classroom? How do we orchestrate group work in a physically-distanced classroom?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2013 Diane Boyd, executive director of Faculty Development Center<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Haywood says the center tries to help faculty view this as a time to develop more applied and forward-thinking strategies\u00a0that will enhance learning well beyond the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe restrictions challenge faculty to look for new ways\u00a0to help\u00a0students\u00a0demonstrate\u00a0their growth\u00a0and learning,\u201d says Boyd.<\/p>\n
Rethinking how we assess learning\u00a0\u201cis an opportunity to make assessment more applicable\u00a0to real-world situations,\u201d she says, \u201cand to allow students to be more creative in the ways they demonstrate they\u2019ve learned the material. Ultimately, this kind of critical thinking is what The Furman Advantage is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judy Bagley, director of Furman\u2019s Student Office for Accessibility Resources, noticed how the campus community came together to support students. SOAR, tasked with creating an accessible, inclusive learning environment for students with disabilities, has been working with faculty to accommodate students who need extended time on tests by increasing the time allowed on Moodle, Furman\u2019s learning management system. In other cases, the office proctored exams through Zoom videoconferencin<\/p>\n
But sometimes accommodations used in regular classrooms aren\u2019t suitable for remote work. For instance, some hearing-impaired students use FM devices that enhance hearing aids in class, and their professors wear a microphone that feeds directly into their cochlear implant. But the system doesn\u2019t work well over the computer, so SOAR set up live captioning to give students equal access to lectures.<\/p>\n
\u201cFurman has stepped up, and it makes me proud to work here,\u201d Bagley says.<\/p>\n
Furman Libraries are also playing a key role.<\/p>\n
Early in the pandemic, library staff helped faculty access the resources they needed to move classes online, staying open so faculty could attend workshops and get tech support.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody in the library had a role to play because we all worked together to support students,\u201d says Jenny Colvin, assistant director for outreach for the libraries.<\/p>\n
Research assistance was available virtually until 10 p.m. most nights. Students and faculty could make appointments with librarians for research consultations conducted over the phone or video conference. If a student needed material that wasn\u2019t available digitally, library staff scanned it and sent it to them.<\/p>\n
Furman\u2019s outreach librarians also met with classes live through videoconferencing, recording lectures that students could access through shared online spaces, and creating web tutorials to fill in gaps.<\/p>\n