在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间,学生和教职员工共同创建了一个虚拟的毕业典礼
This story is included in the most-recent issue of 追求 Magazine, the College’s twice-yearly 校友 publication. To view the entire issue online, or to view longer-form “追求 Extra” pieces, 点击这里.
The annals of time are likely to mark the recent period as the world before COVID-19 and the world after COVID-19. The pandemic has touched virtually every aspect of life on the planet in some way. And the way the narrative has played out so far, days feel like weeks and weeks feel like years.
It almost seems like a year’s worth of events occurred between a record-setting Scholarship Gala on the evening of Friday, February 28 and the day the College became the first higher education institution in Idaho to announce it would go online-only for the rest of the semester on March 13th. Just a two-week period between those two events. “I’ll never forget that day,” Co-President Jim Everett said. 那天是3月13日。 A 13号星期五。”
The College had communicated to campus that following spring break, all classes would be completed online, students were encouraged to move off-campus as soon as they could, and all in-person events (including athletics and commencement) were canceled. Tears and shock flowed throughout campus as the realization set in that many of the in-person relationships and interactions were coming to a close in a matter of hours rather than months later at the end of the school year.
But as difficult as the decision was to make, it was made by a unified administrative group. 高层领导团队每天早上开会,讨论迅速变化的环境和冠状病毒的传播。 Biomedical data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and advice from some of the top medical professionals in Southern Idaho were being discussed and evaluated, played out scenarios and assessed how they could affect the campus community.
“我们正在尽最大努力博彩app推荐提供我们认为是谨慎的行动方案,这将是健康和安全与我们的机构使命之间的最佳平衡,另一方面,这是一种变革的教育,”学术事务副总裁大卫道格拉斯说。 “我们觉得宁可谨慎,也要谨慎,这一点非常重要。”
Simultaneously with the decision to close campus, College administrators set up processes for room and board funds to be either refunded (for graduating seniors) or credited (for continuing students). Unlike at many schools across the nation, arrangements were also made for international (and some domestic) students who could not return home safely to remain on campus, and many of those arrangements have been extended throughout the summer. “这些学生需要呆在一个稳定的地方,”埃弗雷特说,“我们很高兴能够做到这一点。”
In the late spring, six task forces were formed to focus on details related to educational and operational functions of the College, including academics, health and safety, student life, athletics, summer employment, and financial stewardship. The College plans a phased reopening approach for August 2020, beginning with online-only instruction and an elective residence option for students prioritized by need. Should public health and safety conditions improve, the College will advance through phases of re-opening in-person activities and instruction.
教师
With the March 13 announcement, the faculty had two weeks to prepare for online instruction. 值得注意的是,在过去两年中,学院连续成立了两个工作组,就远程学习如何适应学院传统的面对面教学特点发表了白皮书。 It’s likely it would have taken years to implement the type of online-learning delivery that COVID-19 forced the College to adopt in just two weeks’ time.
“It would not have been surprising to anybody if it had been a complete disaster,” said David Douglass, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty. “对于每个人来说,这个社区在适应惊人的、前所未有的变化时表现出的敏捷、坚韧和优雅,给我留下了深刻的印象。 总的来说,人们把它管理得很好,这本来是可以管理的。”
信息技术部副主任艾伦·普莱斯(Alan Price)被认为尽可能顺利地领导了技术过渡,他很快组织了一些实验课程,让教师们学习以前亲自授课的技术。
Faculty changed their “office” hours to “student” hours, actively reaching out to students for individual virtual meetings to find out how they were doing, not only in the class, but overall.
在线复制教学中最具挑战性的领域之一是跨科学的实验室工作。 Chemistry Associate Professor Carolyn Dadabay had just sent home 14 students in a 400-level biochemistry class and wanted a way to preserve some of the lab work they would now be missing, even if some students didn’t even have access to a kitchen. “I was trying to think of some simple experiments that they could do if they had nothing but a bathroom and could only use the stuff that I sent them,” she said. So she purchased various items such as enzymes, plastic test tubes, pH paper (all items that are safe to use in a home environment) from Amazon and had them delivered to each student. “I had all the stuff sent to me, because I also wasn’t going anywhere at the time, so I was home, taking pictures of me (showing) ‘here’s what it should look like.’ ” All this to give them the tools for the hands-on testing and learning that is critical in the sciences.
化学教授Caleb Tormey通过一种不同的媒介也采用了类似的方法。 他的实验需要在实验室里进行。 It wasn’t critical for general chemistry students to do the actual experiments, but it was important for them to get the data. 他仍然想让他们看到数据是如何收集的,所以他制作了自己的实验视频。 “我查找了YouTube的创作者,想知道如何让人们继续观看。 他们说两个关键是灯光和音响。 如果你把这两点都弄清楚了,人们就不太可能点击了。” Before long, Tormey used his webcam, a little tripod, and a microphone to produce quality videos, with a bit of his own unique creativity mixed in to keep his students’ attention when he couldn’t be in the same room with them.
“I think students can tell if you are not trying to engage them,” Tormey added, “or doing your best for them.”
学生们
No group on campus had its world disrupted more than the student body. Not only did students have to flip to online education, but in almost every case, they also had to move out of their residential setting in short order. Even those students who remained on campus felt the same disruption, as many needed to move to different residence halls as the College dedensified campus living.
Reannon Suzuki never expected her sophomore year to be interrupted by a pandemic, but by March, she found herself back at her home in Mililani, Hawai’i, finishing her semester with online classes that had her up at 4:30 a.m. to make up for the time difference.
“那之后就是压力,”铃木回忆道。 “不得不在几天内收拾好我所有的东西回家,然后重新开始(在线)课程。”
Suzuki plans to go to medical school and is studying for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) this summer. 她说,尽管刚开始的时候很艰难,但她能够适应自己的日程安排,并把这归功于老师们的努力。
她说:“我真的很惊讶我的教授们处理所有事情的能力。” “我预料到,因为事情是在最后一刻发生的,所以一切都会很混乱。 但是我的教授们都很支持我。 他们对我们的在线课程有很明确的要求。 我对事情的结果非常满意。”
Over 180 students needed to stay on campus because they couldn’t return home due to international travel restrictions, a lack of another place to go, or financial hardships imposed by travel expenses. Some of these students were also domestic students who did not have a safe home to which to return.
Among the international students who stayed on campus, sophomore Christian Garcia from Venezuela heard from other international students he knew at other schools across the country and was thankful for the support he received at the College. “Oftentimes, people forget to appreciate the value of having something to eat or just a place to sleep,” he said. “I have talked to many of my friends in other places about how their colleges have helped them during this time, and the support we are receiving here at the C of I has no point of comparison. 这让我为成为这个社区的一员感到自豪,也让我对未来充满信心和希望。”
这些学生的家长也对学院在春夏两季继续为学生博彩app推荐提供支持表示感谢。 一位国际学生家长写道:“非常感谢学院的所有捐助者和企业朋友,他们慷慨地决定在2020年这个不寻常的夏天支持国际学生。 我真的相信所有的父母都有同样的感受,并感谢您一直以来的支持。”
博彩app推荐拥有129年的卓越传统。 学院以其优秀的学术课程、优秀的体育传统和培养成功毕业生的历史而闻名,其中包括7位罗德奖学金获得者、3位州长和无数的商业领袖和创新者。 其独特的PEAK课程挑战学生在人文科学、自然科学、社会科学和专业领域的四个知识高峰中获得能力,使他们能够在四年内获得一个主修和三个辅修。 学院紧密结合的住宿校园位于考德威尔,靠近博伊西和爱达荷州西南部山脉和河流的世界级户外活动,为课堂之外的学习博彩app推荐提供了独特的机会。 欲博彩app信息,请访问 www.muasim24h.com.