Faculty Share Teaching Insights and Learning Strategies During the COVID-19 Era

Using innovative learning technology, increasing student engagement and focusing on well-being, Wentworth’s faculty and staff have been successfully charting a new course for students this semester as the university entered week eight of a 15-week schedule.

These educators recently shared some of their best and promising practices and strategies to lead the way in a time marked by a heightened social awareness and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The pandemic has higher education in the here-and-now, but I would argue that Wentworth can change higher education in profound ways in the future ,” said Ian Lapp, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs during a recent “Faculty Days” event. “This is a time to think differently and define a new destination for Wentworth.”

Provost Lapp notes that the higher education that succeed in the future must focus on student learning, development, and growth above all else. “This really is a time for Wentworth to lead on learning,” he said.

“We often think about education as an exceptional experience for our students, but we need to really focus on designing not only exceptional courses, but also exceptional curriculum,”  Lapp mentioned. “We want to design something that can be different and carry with it an outstanding ecosystem, and a full support and success network for our students.”

Part of providing an exceptional experience for Wentworth students meant finding and adapting new techniques to offer a quality education to students in 2020 amidst major global changes.

With Wentworth moving to a current hybrid model of in-person instruction mixed with remote learning, professors have found creative ways to engage students from afar. Associate Professor John Haga utilizes a graphics drawing tablet to provide a more human touch to the work he showcases in Computer and Data Science classes; Assistant Professor Nasser Yari makes his Engineering classes stand out with the Lightboard, a glass whiteboard that allows engaging student interaction during class; and Pia Romano and Kelsey Diemand are opening up access to digital resources and online support at the Schumann Library in new and dynamic ways.

It is important to be a strong presence in the online classroom, said Stephanie Pollard, a part-time Wentworth instructor with 10 years in the distance learning space. She notes that actively engaging students is vital, especially when you are not seeing them in person several times a week.  

“Instructors must really make themselves known. You want to be very present in the online classroom so that students know who their teacher is,” said Pollard. “Make that connection.”

Pollard suggests weekly office hours over Zoom, hosting live lectures where students can pose questions, creating calendars that students can interact with and suggest one-on-one virtual meetings with students.

At the same time, many students are also taking courses on campus right now. To meet the needs of a class that features both in-person and distance learners, some Wentworth professors have adapted a “HyFlex” method, short for hybrid and flexible teaching and learning.

Ron Frattura, senior instructional designer for Learning Innovation & Technology, discussed breakout rooms, online discussion boards, and recording video lectures as ways Wentworth instructors have effectively interacted with students in both synchronous and asynchronous classroom environments. He also recommends using real-time polls to engage, as well as offering students the ability to utilize tools that would allow them to screen share their documents and make real-time edits during a live class.

2020 has also seen an increased call for inclusion and equity on a national level, a movement that Wentworth is addressing through its strategic plan for Inclusive Excellence, among other initiatives.

David Simpson, assistant professor and provost initiatives coordinator for Inclusive Excellence, discussed stereotype threats, which he defined as “being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s social group.”

Such stereotypes, Simpson explained, have been shown to contribute to educational and social inequality in underrepresented groups of students, whether in-person or virtually. Situationally, Simpson identified problem areas as collecting demographic information at the start of a test, calling on a minority student to obtain an opinion relating to a specific demographic, and demonstrating stereotype salience and/or evaluative scrutiny.

To reduce stereotype threat, Simpson suggested encouraging individuals to think of themselves as complex and multifaced, emphasizing high standards with assurance about the capability for meeting them, and providing positive role models.

“In addition to telling my students that I have high expectations and that I’m going to be extremely fair in assessing them, I also tell them that every single one of them is fully capable of being successful in this class,” Simpson said. “And I go though how they can be successful, through communication, making sure you collaborate well, making sure you’re proactive, et cetera.”

And with so many people currently sequestered due to the pandemic, unable to see friends or family, or interact with others in a normal fashion, Wentworth has been hyper-focused on the well-being of members of the community. Maura Mulligan, assistant dean of students and director of the Center for Wellness, encouraged collegiate faculty and staff to consistently check in with students, supporting the idea of rest, providing a list of mental health and accessibility resources available, and offering increased flexibility.

“Obviously, you have academic standards that need to be matched and there are classes that [students] need to attend and work they need to do,” she said. “You absolutely need to hold them to that, but if there’s any flexibility when it feels reasonable for students, that can be really helpful to students.”