Grant Harley, assistant professor in University of Idaho’s Department of Geography, was leaving Vietnam when he first heard of COVID-19. It soon followed him back home to Idaho.
Ever since, Harley has been using a hybrid model of instruction, with both synchronous and asynchronous lectures.
To his surprise, many of his students are continuing to attend in – person despite the virtual options available to them. Harley has been trying to be flexible for his fully online classes this semester.
“Given the circumstances, I (threw) all the due dates out the window, progress at your own pace,” Harley said. “I’ve been overwhelmed by emails from students saying ‘Thank you so much for doing this’…It was a nice positive reaction from them.”
Professor Amin Ahmadzadeh teaches in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. His courses have presented him with unique challenges in adapting his teaching.
Ahmadzadeh was initially nervous at the prospect of UI moving fully online. He has had experience livestreaming classes over the past 20 years, but certain classes would be more difficult to teach with this method.
In animal, veterinary and food sciences, Ahmadzadeh said it would be impossible to transition certain aspects of the classes to a virtual environment.
“It is very hands on,” Ahmadzadeh said. “Let’s say, (learning) how to take the temperature of the cow, how to do the physical examination of the animal.”
Despite the difficulties specific to his field, Ahmadzadeh was still understanding about a potential move online under such difficult circumstances.
“If it had to be done, it had to be done,” Ahmadzadeh said.
Barbara Kirchmeier is chair of Faculty Senate and teaches in the English department.
When classes moved online last semester, Kirchmeier decided to make her classes asynchronous due to students’ changing circumstances.
As Faculty Senate chair, Kirchmeier has heard plenty of feedback from faculty about how they’ve adapted.
Some faculty have recorded all their lectures so students can access them asynchronously. Some have moved discussion groups outdoors, where they can socially distance. Others have taken advantage of the hyflex model.
“We’ve equipped so many classrooms with this hyflex technology,” Kirchmeier said. “It’s amazing that we’re able to offer so many hyflex classes and to give students a choice whether they feel safe coming into the classroom.”
When Ahmadzadeh needs to teach while close to students, he wears both a mask and face shield for additional protection.
“I am willing to take that risk myself,” Ahmadzadeh said. “But I do due diligence, protect myself and students, and do it.”
While he feels professors are taking caution, Ahmadzadeh was concerned about the lack of care coming from the portion of students continuing to party and travel despite the circumstances.
In his larger lecture class, Harley said social distancing has beenas easily manageable.
“I’m blown away by the professionalism and maturity of all these students,” Harley said. “Really, I haven’t had to enforce anything.”
As for the administrative response, Harley has been happy with testing and enforcement.
“I can’t say enough about how proud I am to be a Vandal,” Harley said. “I’m really happy to be here, proud to see the community come together.”
From Faculty Senate, Kirchmeier found faculty’s positions on the university’s response have shifted over time.
“There are still people who are quite skeptical and don’t feel safe,” Kirchmeier said. “But honestly, I have not heard from faculty about this since maybe the second week of class.”
Kirchmeier attributed this to consistent testing and low case numbers making faculty feel more secure teaching on campus.
Despite this change in tune, Kirchmeier feels UI could have better supported faculty by granting them more of a choice in working at home.
“I think we would have been wise to say to faculty and staff ‘If you want to work from home, you can work from home,” Kirchmeier said. “I think there are people who feel really apprehensive about being on campus and feel incredibly anxious being there.”
While Ahmadzadeh said the university is generally doing well accommodating faculty’s needs for classes, he believes faculty have felt a sense of pressure to teach classes in-person. He said the university should provide a little more flexibility to those who do not want to teach in-person. However, he thinks communication has been clear and should continue to focus on transparency in the case UI needs to transition online.
“Things seem to be going well,” Kirchmeier said. “I mean, we built a lab… we’re doing this wastewater testing. I am cautiously optimistic. I think as long as we keep doing what we’re doing, then we’ll be okay.”
Haadiya Tariq can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @haadiyatariq.