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Faculty Share Experiences With Move to Online Delivery The online teaching experiences that email me and tell me he was struggling with his Julie Walker and Glenn Bayerkohler mental health, that people were dying and he had when SMSU moved to online didn’t care about school at that time. I deal with course delivery due to the COVID-19 anxiety and depression myself. You have to be pandemic could not have been more open, and forgiving, and remember the students different. may be struggling too.” Walker, Assistant Professor of Appreciation of Walker’s approach is echoed Communications Studies, took by Ivanhoe, Minn., senior Lacey Barkey, a many online courses when she was Professional Writing and Communication major. getting her two master’s degrees She had taken several college courses online in from Minnesota State, Mankato high school, so it wasn’t a shock when SMSU (MA, communication studies; MFA, moved to entirely online. “I think a lot of the forensics and communication). She adjusting for me was twofold: adjusting to the took a course in online pedagogy, and course material and delivery and then adjusting “I had the good fortune to take online to the altered learning environment. There’s Above: Bayerkohler. Below: Walker courses at the same time I was doing a crucial learning dynamic that occurs in the some teaching work, so I was learning physical classroom that just doesn’t translate well how to teach while watching how when classes are moved online.” others taught online.” Barkey enjoys Walker’s personal approach. She has taught online courses for “For Media Writing, she had an option where Louisiana State-Shreveport. And, she’s we could choose what we learned about at the authored two chapters of textbooks end as it applied to our professional career. In a about online course delivery. time where I felt like nothing was in my control, On the other end of the spectrum, it was nice to be able to feel like I had a say in Bayerkohler, an accounting professor, something.” had no experience with online “I’m a Marshall City Council member, and teaching. “I’m a classroom teacher, so recently the city has had to use Zoom for our for me, it was more of a challenge,” council meetings,” said Bayerkohler. “I learned he said. “When we moved to online, a lot by doing this. It’s still my opinion that it was a shock. I write a lot on a classroom instruction is better than online whiteboard. I tell the students if it’s instruction, and I look forward to getting back to on the whiteboard, it’s important, and the classroom in the fall. I feel I’m a better person should be in their notes.” because of this experience; there were some benefits to come out of this.” He received help from COLT — the Center for Online Learning and His students agree. “Professor Bayerkohler’s classes were the best out Teaching — and “the staff was very helpful in teaching me, and finding of all my courses when we moved online,” said senior Accounting and a classroom to meet my needs.” He teaches from a room in Bellows Finance major Charlie Vang from Walnut Grove. “Overall, the professors Academic via Zoom meeting. “It’s the closest thing I can get to regular made it as flexible as possible, since none of us had ever experienced a classroom teaching, and the students appreciate that. By using Zoom, it’s drastic change like this before. I prefer in-person to online any day. I real-time and interactive, which is a big part of how I teach.” hope we are in the classroom this fall.” With her extensive online experience, Walker takes into consideration Nick Dufault, who earned his Accounting degree this year, said Zoom many things when she teaches, and feels the success of online learning is classes went well. “It wasn’t a big difference between (Bayerkohler’s) a combination of a professor’s and students’ online experiences. in-person classes and online ones. I preferred being in class because I “There’s things students are familiar with — a desk, writing in a felt I learned more and retained more in class. I really missed the human notebook, listening to a lecture, having other students keeping them on interaction with classmates and professors.” track. Now, some don’t have those things due to their circumstances. It’s impossible to look too far into the future as far as Fall semester Plus, there’s other considerations: If you write longhand versus writing 2020. The Minnesota State system has given all colleges and universities on a computer, you remember things differently. Students had to change a trio of scenarios to prepare for. According to President Kumara the way they were learning. Plus, we have students on our campus with Jayasuriya, SMSU is preparing for face-to-face courses, with online some underlying health issues — we are one of eight colleges in the delivery of others. That may change, of course, given the fluid situation country with a wheelchair basketball team.” that’s existed in higher education since mid-March, when spring break Each student learns differently, and when you change the way they are was extended two weeks to prepare for online-only courses. used to learning, compassion and understanding students’ circumstances SMSU has a reputation as a university where students are more than come into play, she feels. “The first thing you do is connect as humans. a number “The greatest thing about SMSU is arguably the personal Some may not have Internet, and some may be trying to take the relationships built across campus. I miss seeing my friends every day, courses strictly on their phone. In my Media Writing class, for instance, and being able to discuss coursework and study with my classmates. I formatting documents is important, and I had to be respectful of the fact hope we are back on campus in the fall. I miss my Mustang Family,” said not everyone had the same access, or devices.” Amanda Harris, a senior Accounting major from Chanhassen, Minn. Walker made a point of reaching out to her students, asking how they Every faculty member at SMSU has quickly learned about online were doing. Their responses, at times, told of unusual circumstances, course delivery. And while each brings to online teaching their own reinforcing her personal approach to online teaching. “It’s about the personal experiences, one thing remains constant: their commitment to student, and understanding their unique, individual challenges,” she the success of the SMSU students, who have worked every bit as hard to said. With that in mind, she was understanding as it relates to submitting make online learning successful. coursework. “If you turn it in, I’ll grade it,” she said. “I had a student
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