Pilots Prevent
February 23, 2021
The pivot to distance learning last spring tested—and proved—the resiliency of University of Portland’s staff and faculty, as entire courses had to be quickly reconfigured and reimagined for online platforms. Considering how successful the classes were, and how many discoveries were made—new programs, new technology, new ways of teaching—you might wonder why UP has worked so hard to bring a good number of students safely back to in-person classes this spring. There were, and still are, so many logistical hurdles to deal with, from surveillance COVID testing to daily classroom cleaning. Why not just keep everything online until we all have our vaccines?
“Some things are just so much better when you see them in person,” says chemistry instructor Beth Morton. “Seeing students interacting and using the chemicals in the labs again is amazing. The students are getting more out of it too. The other day, one of my students was like, ‘Oh yeah!’ when a reaction happened. You just don’t get that when you’re simulating a chemical reaction online.” Morton says the return to hands-on labs has been especially important for the upper division students. “They’re really excited to be back because this is their major.”
But it’s not just the chemistry students and teachers who are enjoying the return to in-person instruction. History professor Brad Franco says “it’s been great, really great. In person it’s a lot more energized. If I’m asking 50 questions, it’s like call and response, and you can’t do that as well on Zoom. Students have to unmute, answer, re-mute. So, you just don’t get a lot of buy-in on those low-level questions and you end up with a lot more awkward silence.”
In-person classes also make it easier to notice when students aren’t participating and give teachers more opportunity to check in before or after class. Franco says during one recent class he noticed a student who wasn’t speaking up. English was her second language and he suspected she was a bit shy. “So, after class I went up and checked in with her. We had a conversation that was really meaningful, and that’s the kind of thing you can’t really do online.”
Brandy Daniels, assistant professor of theology who just joined UP in the fall, says the best part is seeing the students interacting with each other. “My classes are very discussion based and doing that in person is so much easier than online. While I’m grateful for the technology to do the online teaching, it’s hard to pop over to a break-out room because as soon as I enter the students stop talking. I can’t just walk by and hear what they’re saying. But in person, small group discussions are easier. There’s more time for reflections and you can turn to your neighbor and talk about it for a minute.”
Of course, there’s a strict protocol for keeping people socially distant while still attending classes in person. Classrooms in use are spread out, they only get used about once a day, with plenty of time in between to thoroughly clean them. There are only about 15 students in a classroom, and they must stay masked and 6 feet apart from each other, usually with green arrows marking where they can sit.
Even with all of those safety precautions in place, 990 individual students have been able to take classes on campus this spring, 362 of whom are first-year students taking a class on campus for the very first time. Many of these students have more than one in-person class.
And by all accounts, the students are very happy to be physically present in a classroom again, even if it does mean wearing a mask all day. “In person you can definitely cultivate a vibe, a camaraderie, and connections that are meaningful,” says Franco, “and that makes it easier for students to get the work done and remember it. Last class, as they were leaving, I heard someone say, ‘Oh my gosh it is so much better to be in person than online.’”
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