Transitioning Courses During COVID-19: Strategies, Processes, and Lessons Learned by Three Black Faculty at Primarily White Institutions

Transitioning Courses During COVID-19: Strategies, Processes, and Lessons Learned by Three Black Faculty at Primarily White Institutions

Kanita K. DuCloux, Michelle S. Jones, Jeffrey D. Herron
Copyright: © 2021 |Pages: 27
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-7000-5.ch007
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Abstract

In this chapter, three Black faculty from two different predominantly white institutions (PWIs) reflect on how they were able to successfully transition their traditional face-to-face courses to online or remote courses in a short time frame. They briefly describe the two institutions followed by a discussion of the struggles with technological issues, the benefits and disadvantages of working from home, as well as the stress of coping with COVID-19-related issues. Next, the faculty describe the strategies implemented with college students to help the students navigate the transition and be successful in their courses when all schools, colleges, and universities were forced to make the switch from traditional face-to-face instruction to online or remote teaching due to the pandemic.
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The Transition

Many areas of everyone’s lives were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic including health, tourism, education, and the economy. Hebebci, Bertiz, and Alan (2020) stated that the education sector was the second most impacted sector behind the health sector. It did not take very long for this pandemic to affect the lives of a large number of students around the world. “As a matter of fact, the number of students whose educational activities were restricted was around 300 million in March 2020 and the number reached 1.6 billion in April 2020” (Hebebci et al., 2020).

University 1

As the COVID-19 pandemic began to evolve, University 1 created a task force to guide the decision making process for campus activities. The task force created a variety of contingency plans when trying to decide how the university would best protect faculty, staff, students, and the surrounding community. University 1 transitioned from face-to-face classes to virtual classes in March 2020. When students went home for spring break, they did not return to campus for any face-to-face courses. Spring break was extended an additional week to allow faculty time to consider transition modalities, prepare to teach their courses using non face-to-face formats, and to communicate these changes to their students. The Teaching and Learning Center offered workshops and webinars for faculty and staff to prepare for a smooth transition of courses. The original plan was for this virtual delivery format to last for two weeks. However, the rapid spread of the coronavirus necessitated it to last for the rest of the spring semester and it carried over to the fall semester. Since Professors A and B both have experience with online teaching, the transition from a face-to-face format to a synchronous online format was easy for both of them.

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