In the School of Business, our faculty and staff took on new creative ways to continue to provide a classroom feel in our new digital environment. As the college had to move all classes online faculty members worked diligently to find adequate ways to continue to deliver their course work. Some professors chose to teach in a live format via various video conference applications. While others relied on Blackboard to post readings, videos, and additional resources to participate in weekly discussion boards, a more asynchronous format. This change gave our faculty the freedom to model a new digital classroom and resulted in amazing adaptations by our campus community.
The Urban Horticulture and Design department has a wide variety of classes that by nature, are very hands-on. Floral Design II – Advanced (HOR 226) taught this past semester by Professor Debbie Cassidy incorporated unique tools and different technologies to give the same experience to her students. Professor Cassidy instructed her student to create digital flower arrangements with techniques they would learn in her Monday night lectures. Specifically, her class covered topics like special events arrangements like sweet sixteen and weddings as well as Biedermeier arrangements, tropical arrangements, and English garden arrangements.
Professor Cassidy instructed her class to search online for floral wholesalers to
seek out available flowers during the spring season to maintain authenticity in her
virtual classroom. Once they had the types of flowers they wanted to include in their
designs, they shaped the digital file to create these beautiful arrangements using
the learned theories and techniques. Prof. Cassidy comments "Even if I was going to
design for them over a virtual class, they still needed to be creative and think outside
the box. They were floral designers, and
it is in this course where I push them to be creative and also to work in groups and
be creative on a particular theme." The students were zealous in their efforts to
understand the course material and produce dazzling arrangements.
Even though the students were disappointed that they could not finish their course working in an in-person lab setting, they excelled in this new virtual classroom. In the emerging from this era of distance learning. He describes that it forced us to use these digital platforms and in turn, he received positive feedback from his students.
This past spring Dr. Lehrer taught Woody Plants III: Advanced Topics (HOR 311). He
relied on Blackboard to provide the necessary materials for his students. While also
holding synchronous lectures virtually. Dr. Leher observed that even though his teaching
style had to change forms mid-semester the students overall adapted very well. As
they learned the material he noticed his students became more engaged and even communicated
more to their fellow classmates than in a traditional classroom.
Dr. Lehrer conducted the final presentation through Google Meet where the students
had to form a team and present their work in front of their peers. A few student teams
experienced technical difficulties on the day of their final presentations. While
this occurred, the other students quickly banded together to offer their advice and
support to help their fellow classmates manage their technical problems. As their
issues were quickly resolved the display of teamwork and student engagement was remarkable.
Although the students were geographically apart they were able to come together in
ways that may not have been cultivated in a traditional classroom setting. The Urban
Horticulture and Design department was not the only department to witness these positive
outcomes.
The Sport Management Department also has had a few diamonds emerge from the rubble. Professor Sarbjit (Sab) Singh, Chair of the Sport Management department incorporated various elements in his Sport Law (SMT 311) this past spring. While primarily depending on Blackboard in an asynchronous format Professor Singh maintained constant communication with his students. He commented that he checked in with his students weekly to inquire about how they are doing with this new academic shift. Professor Singh also incorporated the program Top Hat into one of his classes. This program allowed him to maintain engagement in his Powerpoint presentation by having interactive questions he preselected to be incorporated in his lesson. The students were able to answer these questions as they studied the course material. The results can also be tallied for the class to review. Professor Singh will be looking to incorporate more of Top Hat features in his future courses. Professor Singh expressed that this Covid-19 outbreak exposed areas of opportunity for the department to utilize various techniques to increase classroom engagement.
Our Sport Management department also offers a few active classes that come with a
unique application. Classes like Introduction to Weight Training and Fitness (PED121)
and Introduction to Volleyball (PED 135) had to take on adjustments to still deliver
the knowledge of their specific niche. The professors were flexible with their students
as some equipment may not be accessible to all during the pandemic. They generated
course plans and utilized various applications to track any individual exercise to
learn and illustrate the course elements. Professor Singh noted they did a great job
constructing their new plans to still communicate the core objective of their classes
respectfully.
These past few months have come with various challenges and uncertainty that the college could not have predicted. Each department has taken on these new challenges and turned them into moments of opportunity. During this time our professors continue to search for technologies to be utilized in creative ways to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
