How to keep students feeling connected and supported — 4 Excellence in Teaching Award winners weigh in

BOONE, N.C. — At the beginning of the 2020 spring semester, no one at Appalachian State University could have imagined a complete transition to online learning — with only days to prepare. Yet that is what occurred in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, and faculty continue to perfect their flexibility.

While Appalachian regularly offers a number of online programs, adapting all courses to that format tested even Mountaineer resiliency. A variety of resources were made available to aid in the transition — including the Keep Teaching and Keep Learning websites and the Center for Academic Excellence’s Faculty Champions, who assisted their peers.

Yet, how do faculty make sure students feel connected and supported in online course delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Four past recipients of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award shared their experiences and strategies. Here are some of their tips.

How to engage students when you can’t be face to face

• Email often with information, resources — and words of encouragement.
• Find ways to connect students to one another. For instance, one professor had students drop a “pin” on a Google Map to indicate their general location.
• Use virtual breakout rooms for students to meet in small groups for discussions and collaborations.
• Offer virtual office hours by Zoom as another “touchpoint” with students.
• Provide a forum for “off-topic” discussions, in which students can talk about how they are coping with their unusual circumstances during the pandemic.
• Use both synchronous options (real-time events, such as videoconferencing or live chatrooms) to provide an opportunity to interact and asynchronous instruction (including recordings, discussion forums and email) to provide flexibility to students.
• Keep things simple, determining what is necessary in the curriculum.

D. Jason Miller

Associate professor, Department of Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment
Associate dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts

As a design educator and professional, the challenge of working online for D. Jason Miller hasn’t been the technology interface or workflow of design process and production. Those tools offer relatively simple pivots into online formats, he said.

“The real challenge, I have found, is in redeveloping the atmosphere and culture of a design studio environment in a virtual space. … My energy and focus have been on fostering that type of atmosphere by ‘holding space’ in synchronous studio meetings for students to work on their projects in a shared setting,” said Miller, who teaches in the Department of Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment (STBE).

“Asking for and expecting student engagement in the course itself — rather than just the work assigned — presents a renewed sense of student agency and the spirit of a studio atmosphere,” he said.

Breakout rooms allow small groups to peer review or receive one-on-one desk critiques on the work in progress. A student co-host for each videoconferencing studio session provides new insights and strategies.

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Dr. Tracy W. Smith

Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction

A professor in Appalachian’s Reich College of Education, Dr. Tracy W. Smith has been using a combination of synchronous (real-time events, such as videoconferencing or live chatrooms) and asynchronous approaches of interaction (including recordings, discussion forums and email) to keep students engaged.

For students who could no longer intern in the field during spring semester because K–12 schools closed due to COVID-19, she again turned to technology.

“The good news is that many teachers and students (across the country) generously shared their experiences on platforms such as YouTube — and I spent hours watching videos and selecting some to share with my students. My students watched them and discussed strategies for planning lessons, managing the classroom and practicing self-care as a teacher,” Smith said.

“We had some great discussions prompted by the videos and are focused on best practices of how teachers supported their students’ learning and well-being during the coronavirus pandemic,” she said.

In a graduate course she teaches, Smith said students learning about educational policy stepped back from their regular course curriculum and brainstormed about curriculum and policy responses related to the coronavirus outbreak. Groups of the graduate students worked together to craft recommendations to share with local and state officials on aspects of the educational enterprise, including how to support working parents whose children are learning at home and how to provide more equitable learning situations for at-home learning.

Dr. Lisa Runner

Associate professor of music education, Hayes School of Music

Through the Hayes School of Music, Dr. Lisa Runner teaches a general education class called Cultivating Creative Expression for a variety of majors. “It is a hands-on class, with lots of improvisation oriented toward music making — with the goal of students becoming more active listeners, understanding why they like the music they do,” she said.

Typically, her students would attend and base projects on live performances, but now they explore what live performances are posted on the internet. “This increases flexibility and allows students to find artists they might not have otherwise discovered, and see performances in a different perspective than sitting in the audience,” she said.

Runner added, “I used part of our class time to discuss things that build community. For instance, what are students doing to take care of themselves? How are we handling adversity, addressing challenges and dealing with things that don’t go our way? How can we celebrate others? These topics are the forefront of what our students need right now.”

Dr. Tim Huelsman

Professor, Dr. Wiley F. Smith Department of Psychology
Director of the Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Human Resource Management (IOHRM) master’s program

Dr. Tim Huelsman has created videos and other forms of asynchronous teaching to provide his students more flexibility in when they work on his courses. To help maintain accessibility, “I email students frequently and host virtual office hours where I offer to answer questions about class or talk about anything,” he said.

He also is using the pandemic as a theme throughout his coverage of theory and research. “We are seeing live, in-the-moment case examples of many of the topics,” he said.

Hearing of students’ different experiences in relation to the pandemic has made him become more empathetic and flexible in how he addresses students’ requests and circumstances, he said. “They are all really different, and these differences cannot be respected with a ‘one-size-fits-most’ approach.”

He added, “There are positives that have come from this. I have seen so much more collegiality, so much more cooperation among my students and among my colleagues. After the crisis is over, I think we will have created deeper, longer-lasting relationships than if we had not had COVID-19 challenging us.”

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About the College of Fine and Applied Arts

Appalachian State University’s College of Fine and Applied Arts is a dynamic and innovative group of seven academic departments, bringing together a variety of perspectives, experiences and real-world education to provide unique opportunities for student success. The college has more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate majors. Its departments are Applied Design, Art, Communication, Military Science and Leadership, Sustainable Development, Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment, and Theatre and Dance. Learn more at https://faa.appstate.edu.

About the Reich College of Education

Appalachian State University offers one of the largest undergraduate teacher preparation programs in North Carolina, graduating about 500 teachers a year. The Reich College of Education enrolls more than 2,000 students in its bachelor's, master's, education specialist and doctoral degree programs. With so many teacher education graduates working in the state, there is at least one RCOE graduate teaching in every county in North Carolina. Learn more at https://rcoe.appstate.edu.

About the Hayes School of Music

The Hayes School of Music prepares young musicians for professional lives as performers, composers, music educators, music therapists, conductors and music industry professionals, ensuring the next generation of musical leadership for the state, region and nation. Noted for quality instruction by national and internationally recognized faculty musicians, the school offers four undergraduate degree programs and three graduate-level programs. Learn more at https://music.appstate.edu.

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at Appalachian State University is home to 17 academic departments, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. CAS aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. More than 6,400 student majors are enrolled in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing App State’s general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.

About the Walker College of Business

The Walker College of Business at Appalachian State University delivers transformational educational experiences that prepare and inspire students to be ethical, innovative and engaged business leaders who positively impact our community, both locally and globally. The college places emphasis on international experiences, sustainable business practices, entrepreneurial programs and real-world applications with industry. Enrolling approximately 3,000 undergraduates in 10 majors and 175 graduate students in three master's programs, the Walker College is accredited by AACSB International – the premier global accrediting body for schools of business. Learn more at https://business.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As the premier public undergraduate institution in the Southeast, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives as global citizens who understand and engage their responsibilities in creating a sustainable future for all. The Appalachian Experience promotes a spirit of inclusion that brings people together in inspiring ways to acquire and create knowledge, to grow holistically, to act with passion and determination, and to embrace diversity and difference. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Appalachian is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System. Appalachian enrolls nearly 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and graduate majors.