In mid-March, Colgate (like colleges and universities across the country) suspended in-person teaching. Professors had two weeks to devise ways to transfer the magic of their classroom, studio, or laboratory to their students’ computer screens. Here are just a few examples of the innovative ways faculty members kept their students engaged and connected during the spring semester.
Dance, Dance Revolution
Amy Swanson, assistant professor of dance
Course: Advanced Contemporary Dance
“This class was originally geared toward a final performance featuring student and faculty choreography; so instead, my students created screendances. They put significant energy and effort into these projects, finding new opportunities with film and isolation. The spaces they were in added to, rather than took away from, the themes they chose to work with. They experimented with fascinating ways of framing their bodies and edited their films in ways that far surpass my movie editing skills. Their films ended up looking like this was the intention all along.
“I was blown away by my students’ continued engagement with the course in these unusual circumstances. They all showed up to every synchronous class session with insightful contributions to discussions based on assigned readings and viewings. I learned that it’s not necessary to have a dance studio to grow as a dancer and dance instructor.”
Honey, I Shrank the Tools
DeWitt Godfrey, professor of art and art history
Course: Sculptures: Process and Material
“My class was going to start a project using locally sourced, rough-cut lumber. So my safety technician, Duane Martinez, and I miniaturized it: We packed up kits of balsa wood, little Japanese pull saws, knives, glue, and sandpaper, and shipped one to every student, including some in China and the UK. I downloaded a webcam app for my phone, set it up on a tripod, put all the project materials on the table, and did a demo of how to use the tools.
“In a studio class like mine, there’s a lot of over-the-shoulder teaching — for example, ‘Try holding the saw this way.’ So I formalized that, using one class to hold a one-on-one interview with each student. I spent a fair amount of those meetings simply checking in with them. I wanted to acknowledge the challenge they’re facing, and that they’re sticking with it. Almost all of them told me that, at a time when everything they’re doing is online, they really valued the tactility, the physicality of having to do something with their hands.”
Investigating the Message — and the Messenger
Ani Maitra, associate professor of film and media studies
Course: Global Media: Flows and Counterflows
“While preparing to move to online instruction, I realized that the media coverage of the pandemic was itself a really important topic for discussion. We looked at how the perception of risk is dependent on mass media and how it would be impossible to assess risk without the help of media technologies and representations, such as simulations, graphs, and models. We also talked about the role of misinformation — or the ‘infodemic’ — spreading faster than the virus on social media and shaping public perception of the pandemic.
“I was really pleased by the connections my students made between the broader goals of this course and the pandemic conditions that they are living through. They were able to ask pointed questions about media access and infrastructure in a global frame through their own lived experiences. They also thought critically about the socioeconomic and ecological costs of ‘going online’ during the pandemic: Who gets to work from home and who doesn’t? Would there be an infrastructure — digital or otherwise — without the workers who are laboring offline? What is the global carbon footprint of all this digital activity?”
Swimming in Enzymes
Ernest Nolen, Gordon and Dorothy Kline Chair in chemistry
Course: Organic Chemistry
“At first I dreaded going online because I imagined pointing my computer at a chalkboard while I drew molecules. Lightboard saved the day. I’m facing my students while I’m writing on the board. I can project enzymes and look like I’m floating inside them. I can reach out, touch different amino acids, and say, ‘See how this carbon is close to that oxygen?’
“My students watch the videos on their own time, and then, during normal class time or office hours, we have a chance to talk about the content. Basically, it’s like a flipped classroom.
“Teaching through Zoom, you feel close to people but you also feel distant. I have noticed one nice thing, though. For students who might not have been on top of the material, when they’re with me on Zoom, they open up. I hear their voice and know where they are, more than I ever did before.”
Seeds of Creativity
Jennifer Blake-Mahmud, postdoctoral fellow in biology
Course: Advanced Topics in Organismal Biology
“Normally in this course, each student reads a peer-reviewed paper and then presents it to the class. It would be exhausting to sit in front of Zoom presentations every day, so I encouraged students to try new things instead. I can’t believe how creative they got as they engaged with the information. Using tools like Google Forms, they devised interactive spaces for their peers to learn in — like online escape rooms, where you had to apply your knowledge from having read a paper as clues to win a round of “Who Wants to Be a Plant Millionaire?” Another group used their paper to write a sex advice column for plants.
“I also prerecorded five-minute ‘housekeeping’ chats. Each week they were about something different — how to be resilient, how to get organized when your day suddenly has no structure, that sort of thing. I would ask students to respond in the discussion forums. I enjoy my students as people, and I miss them. But teaching this course online has given me the chance to be creative in a way I wouldn’t otherwise have gotten to do.”