Dr. Kelley Logan, chair of SWOSU’s Department of Language and Literature, recently shared her experience of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Logan has been with SWOSU for 26 years and has been chair for the last 15.
She said COVID-19 really disrupted the educational system and forced many educators to redo their lesson plans for the rest of the year. Higher education was no exception.
SWOSU’s initial response was to suspend all face-to-face classes and not have students return to campus after Spring Break 2020. Classes then were moved online, and a majority of students returned home to study.
“Many professors had to completely redo their classes, and they had Spring Break to do it,” Dr. Logan said.
However, by the time a decision was made, most were left with about 4 days to at least redo a few weeks’ worth of material. In addition, many also had to familiarize themselves with parts of Canvas, SWOSU’s learning management system, they had never used before.
After surviving the remainder of the Spring 2020 semester, faculty and staff turned their attention to the summer classes. Most remained online as protocols had not been finalized. A lot of this time was used to prepare the campus for the fall semester.
“The first and second floors of the Campbell Building, I readied that,” Dr. Logan said. “I had one student worker and my secretary, but most of the stuff I did.”
Each department produced signage to manage traffic and remind students of sanitization protocols. Class numbers were lowered to accommodate social distancing and excess seating was stored in rooms too small to support a viable class.
Logan said rooms with tables had barriers erected between students and seating was numbered to track infections. Barriers between faculty and students also were installed.
Cleaning protocols were stepped up. Classes were provided with sanitization wipes and hand sanitizer.
“We pretended we were in a hospital — sanitize in, sanitize out — so if they got something on their hands before or during class, they would be clean,” Dr. Logan said. “We have great kids. They often would offer to wipe down desks and still are doing it.”
She said students also have been great about wearing their masks on campus and the few who have been seen around without had forgotten or misplaced theirs.
While many faculty members returned in the fall, older faculty or those with comorbidity factors such as asthma were moved online. This meant making a big switch in their way of teaching.
Logan said asynchronous teaching methods had to be adjusted or avoided.
“We have students in farming communities where connectivity isn’t as good, so most of the time we are asynchronous,” she said. “For synchronous learning, we augment or tape the class for students who blink out.”
Professors also have been getting feedback from students, reorganizing the material to make it more accessible and finding ways to make it more visually appealing. Logan said keeping an eye out for struggling students also has been important.
Logan said most have adapted to online teaching well, but it can be isolating. Students also have been struggling with this feeling. To help with this feeling, faculty has been finding a way to be more personal online with their students and create small group Zoom session within the classes.
Additionally, Logan said students were not as techsavvy as expected, but many now are proficient with the online learning platforms.
Those still teaching inperson classes essentially have to prepare two courses, one for in-person and one for online.
Adjustments also have to be made for sick and quarantined students.
To date, Logan said SWOSU has had 688 total student COVID-19 cases and 77 employee COVID-19 cases between both campuses. Many more have been quarantined due to exposure.
“This was difficult for us, particularly for the teachers, because how do you deal with these people when they are sick for 2 weeks?” Logan said. “How do you handle it when they come back? And that’s when they are not super sick.”
She said some students have gotten so sick they could not finish the semester, raising questions about spent tuition money.
Now, students are enrolling for the upcoming fall and summer semester. Logan said many are choosing to take online classes and enjoying them. Some also are taking care of vulnerable persons or concerns about having the vaccine before returning to campus.
Despite the rise in online class enrollment, Logan said both faculty and students are looking forward to returning to in-person classes.