“Fortunately, I suppose, this whole shift came about half-way through the semester so we already had about eight weeks of getting to know each other,” Shepard said. The course still starts with a lecture and students are then sent to Zoom breakout rooms, which Shepard moves between to answer questions as students discuss with one another while their worlds run around in the background.
JANA SHEPARD M STATE WADENA MN PROFESSIONAL
With three classes previously online and one in-person at the Detroit Lakes campus, Shepard moved her Professional and Technical Writing course to Zoom during their standard course time. To help meet some of these needs, the M State library and front desk remained open, virtual services were available during the week and on Saturday and an internet booster will be added in the parking lot, according to Drange. Students enrolled in online courses from the start of the semester might have used school computer labs, such as PSEO students or those with unreliable internet access, as Shepard said. The challenges came as students transitioned, however, with asynchronous communication and environment changes, according to Evans and Shepard.
Desire2Learn is a learning platform where students are placed into their courses and can access posted content such as asynchronous discussions and Zoom meeting links, according to Shepard.
Shepard and Evans have taught courses online throughout this semester and in years prior, leaving each with one class to reformat through Desire2Learn, Zoom classes and computer lab simulations. While students are completing their finals May 4-8, biology instructor Bill Evans and English instructor Jana Shepard shared how their classes transitioned online with discussions and online testing, the different social-emotional support students have needed during the COVID-19 pandemic and internet access challenges. Along with colleges around the country, M State Wadena transitioned courses online for their spring semester, with 95% of the over 600 courses available for online completion, according to interim associate dean of academic and student affairs Stephanie Drange.
0 kommentar(er)
