at-home order on March 22, the world of Ohioans shrank even further. Classes from quarantine proved to be a challenge on both ends. Beckloff was faced with the question of how to teach a studio class, which usually needed specialized equipment, from afar. She wasn’t the only one wondering this. As part of a well-connected community of designers and letterpress educators and printmakers, she knew plenty of people who could help. She started a Google Drive and invited more than 30 of those people to join. “I don’t know how we’re going to teach this,” she said. “But let’s all figure it out together.” Beckloff knew that lots of her students took her class because they wanted something you couldn’t get online: the act of creation, of physically making something with your hands. Even separated from the studio and the equipment, she wanted them to still have that. So, over spring break, she assembled packages of paper, craft supplies, brushes, X-Acto knives, stamps and more. The meditative process of assembling the kits helped her cope and process. “I went through my own studio,” she said. “I’m glad that I held on to a bunch of stuff that I didn’t know why I was using it. It’s like I needed it for this occasion.” Knowing that letterpress printer friends of hers were hurting for business, she also commissioned materials from them. With all of it sanitized, she taped up the 12’’x12’’x6’’ boxes and sent them off to her students. “[I wanted to] give them this, like, physical reminder that we’re all connected,” she said. “I just want to introduce them to these experiences that they would have had if I was bringing in visiting designers to engage with them in person. So if they can’t have that experience, how can I introduce them to the printing community through these distance methods?” Not every class adapted so smoothly to being online. The lack of structure and upending of routine set many students back. For Kayla and Leeann, there was the added challenge of transitioning classes that they had begun in a
different country. Shaoyang at first thought moving online would be good, before many of his discussion-based classes became writing-based. It multiplied his workload. To help offset the challenges that online learning posed, on March 25 the university extended deadlines to withdraw from undergraduate classes and to elect for a credit/no credit grading option to April 17.
Associated Press Quarantine. It’s a state of living that, until now, most people have never known. No going out to eat, no meeting friends for drinks. No parties, no family gatherings. No seeing a movie in theaters, no shopping at malls, no casual interactions with friends on the sidewalk. No end in sight. For Beckloff, a self-proclaimed extrovert, the transition has been tough. Within the walls of her home, it’s only her, her husband and their best friend — they invited him to stay with them for the duration of quarantine, since he lives alone. Beckloff tries to keep busy. While working from home, each member of the household stays occupied with their own hobbies. Beckloff decided to take up gardening, something she had never really done before, since she never considered herself to be good with plants. But in some strange way, planting seeds gives her hope. “It’s like, time is still moving because these plants are growing,” she said. Sometimes she stretches. Sometimes she medi-
“I don’t know how we’re going to teach this. But let’s all figure it out together.”