Transitioning to Online Learning During a Pandemic
My day starts early — way too early — with a 6 am human alarm clock in the form of a boisterous 2nd grader. After preparing breakfast, homeschooling begins. Then I have to pivot in order to start my workday at 8 am while my 7 year old, Xavier, happily grabs his laptop to continue his lessons under the guidance of his grandmother, an early childhood educator. Not how I imagined 2020, but this is our new normal.
The one thing that has remained constant since mid-January is my Governance Seminar. This course, comprised of second and third-year Global Challenges students, has an extraordinary classroom make-up — strong personalities on the offense and on the defense, brilliant debaters, passionate speakers who create hilarious catchphrases, visiting students from other courses & degree programs that choose not to simply sit-in but stand out, and quiet listeners who occasionally speak up with so much precision that they silence the entire room. Our conversations often spill out into the corridors, the open space, and into late-night chat rooms.
It’s intense.
The week before the Rwandan government announced its first case of COVID-19, we discussed health governance. Our case studies were current and pressing. Nigeria’s 1st coronavirus case had arrived in the country two weeks earlier. In class, students discussed if the application of the principle of shared governance could curb the spread of the virus in light of the nation’s concern that the virus could overwhelm Nigeria’s already strained health care and disease surveillance systems. Later in the week, students designed an accountability session for key individuals and institutions in order to decide who should be held accountable for the failure of an initiative at East Africa’s largest mental health institution, Kenya’s Mathari Hospital. I wrote these scenarios anticipating the advanced level of analysis, nuance, and anecdotal perspectives students would contribute in class. When exiting the room, we scheduled office hours to talk about summer internship applications, grad school programs, and the world of consulting. We couldn’t have imagined that after departing the classroom we would soon be locked down in our respective countries, and residences.
Within this new context, the question at the forefront of my mind was — How do we capture the vibrancy and flow we attained in the live classroom environment and transfer it to the online learning space? Since we already established a dynamic, my goal was to elevate our connection across distance and time zones. As the facilitator, I needed to amplify our communication in spite of our varying connectivity. While some of the tools used for learning had changed, my role had not. Both I and my students needed to continue to function, albeit virtually. We continued to refer to the course module for guidance on our topics, case studies, readings, & videos and moved our discussions to Google Classroom and Zoom sessions. I quickly transferred clarifying conversations about assignments, career aspirations & personal goals to voice notes and calls. Through regular check-in conversations, I recognized that we are all carrying some level of grief and feelings of disconnect from our university work, and community. I also learned that my students are making great efforts to engage in spite of sickness, weak or non-existent wifi, national security issues, financial concerns, and fluctuating motivation. This transition required a lot of my students. I needed to be flexible.
Today was our last Zoom class session of the term. We ended it on a high note with a lively discussion on governance risks with a senior UN official providing leadership in the Sahel. Our final weeks in the term will be spent in office hours and in preparation for the submission of remaining assessments for the course. Still, there are times when every extroverted fiber in my body feels like it is about to explode. In these moments, my mantra remains — “We will make it work.” If someone were to ask me how I maintain academic rigor and flexibility during a global pandemic? My answer would be “empathy.” If I were asked about my greatest motivation during these uncertain times. My answer would be “seeing my students in person again.”
September can’t come soon enough.
