Student and Faculty Engagement and Support in a Pandemic

Authors

Ericka Hackman, SUNY Orange

Date of this Version

10-2020

Document Type

Article

Citation

INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP ABSTRACTS, Volume 12, Issue 8, October, 2020

Comments

Published by the National Council of Instructional Administrators (NCIA)

Abstract

It’s been seven long months since our world was turned upside down with the onslaught of COVID-19. We all remember clearly the chaos of March 2020 transforming our in-person, on-campus instruction to remote models; frantically securing technology for students, faculty, and staff to work remotely and standing up phone and videoconference operations for all of our support and administrative services. Our campus faculty and staff worked incredibly hard to pivot teaching and learning to support students’ successful completion of the Spring 2020 semester. I think many of us thought it was a pipedream to get to Commencement and actually graduate students in Spring 2020 – but we did it! They did it. The resilient students of Spring 2020 showed up in Zoom, and GoogleMeet, and Blackboard Collaborate; they quickly learned how to navigate new course environments and they succeeded. We know it wasn’t easy for anyone to transition last Spring. We also know that the challenges of teaching and learning remotely in a pandemic disproportionately affected our students who have limited access to technology and WiFi, less support at home for participating in college, and familial and essential work responsibilities (Fain, 2002). In this brief abstract I will share what we learned at SUNY Orange from our Spring 2020 students and how that shaped our actions and response coming into the 2020-2021 academic year.