Brittany Henderson
Staff Writer/MC301
Many colleges have gone to online learning and in turn the careers of thousands of professors across the United States have also gone virtual.
Professors have faced many obstacles when turning what was once a face-to-face curriculum into an easily accessible on-line course.
Lori Liddell, an instructor of accounting at Jackson State University, has found that one source of complication comes from not being able to actually see all of her students at once.
“It’s easier to recognize when students may not understand concepts when you are face-to-face (you can see the look of bewilderment in their eyes),” said Liddell.
Liddell continued, “When virtual, you have to rely on students speaking up when they have questions.”
Liddell said that she has seen a decrease in student participation since going virtual with her course. She had a piece of advice to students.
“Online courses are what you make them to be, and often require students to push themselves in terms of time management and organization skills. If we all look at this time as a learning opportunity, we will find ourselves better for enduring in the long run,” said Liddell
Liddell is not the only one who has seen a decrease in student participation.
Sharon Griffin, adjunct professor in the College of Business at JSU, also noticed a decrease in the activities that her students were participating in.
Griffin believes that one reason that there is a decline in student participation with online courses could be that students are not motivated.
“Technology reduces oversight of students, which could be particularly detrimental for students who are less motivated or should receive less structured educational support,” said Griffin
However, its not just unmotivated students that are the result of lower participation rates.
Griffin noted that many of her students do not live in the state of Mississippi, making it hard to connect with them.
One way she has been staying in contact with her pupils this semester is her use of Zoom.
Zoom is a web conferencing app that is being utilized across the world to hold work meetings, parent teacher conferences, and lecture seminars.
Griffin realized after the first few sessions on Zoom, that she would need to implement some Zoom etiquette.
She brought order to her Zoom calls with these five rules.
1. Present yourself in the best possible light, at least from the waist up
2. We see behind you
3. Mute your microphone
4. When speaking, either physically raise your hand or use the “Raise Hand button”.
5. Use chat feature to ask questions
Griffin is not the only professor who put in place rules when it comes to participation in zoom calls.
Tony Latiker, associate professor of elementary and early childhood education at Jackson State, has been utilizing the breakout feature on Zoom.
The breakout feature allows Latiker to join different groups in real time and provide feedback to their ideas, much like how he would work with group activities during his face-to-face courses.
To ensure that his students are on time to Zoom calls, Latiker uses another important Zoom feature,
“I incorporate a graded bell ringer activity into each class. The students have to submit it into Canvas within the first ten minutes of class. Once that is complete, we all discuss it as a class on Zoom. Then we move into the lesson for the day,” said Latiker
Latiker noted that he has benefited from going online.
“It has caused me to rethink my teaching. I have had to identify a number of new resources and content in order to make sure that online learning is on par with face to face learning in my courses.”
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