Pardee Staff and Students Reflect on Remote Learning
BU Digital Learning & Innovation has created a “Voices & Reflections” series that is a collection of insights and experiences from those teaching and learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic this spring. BU’s leadership, faculty, students, and staff discuss their challenges and unexpected revelations and accomplishments. The goal of the series is to highlight important teaching and learning moments and new educational opportunities, and share heartwarming experiences of students and faculty connecting with and beyond technology. Talin Yaghoobian, Assistant to the Dean and Pardee School’s remote learning coordinator, and Johanna Geary, Pardee School Class of 2022, contribute to the series.
Johanna Geary reflects on her remote learning from the student perspective:
I have been impressed with how quickly my professors adapted their classes into online formats. The transition has revealed a lot of creativity from both professors and students in my opinion.
Generally speaking, my larger lectures almost seem more personal despite the virtualness of it all. My professors seem to more regularly invite questions and discussions now. I also think students find class participation less intimidating when they don’t actually see their peers or have the ability to hear their reactions.
Talin Yaghoobian reflects on remote teaching from the staff perspective:
Pardee faculty who describe themselves as techno-phobic have done exceptionally well during the transition to remote teaching because they dedicated hours of their time to training with our RTC coordinators and learning on their own.
When someone who is not accustomed to online interfaces first sees a screen with all kinds of banners, colors and boxes, it can be overwhelming. Having our faculty step back and take a moment to read through the content and start recognizing the subtle structure of websites has been crucial in building their tech savviness, and repeating this process has allowed them to take their remote teaching into their own hands.
The “Voices and Reflection” series can be found here.