During the past 18 months, higher education professors have had to rethink their teaching strategies and methods to engage students in a blended learning environment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fierce Education’s “2021 Fierce Leaders in Higher Ed” virtual event Fierce Educators presented the innovative strategies and methods they have embraced to better reach and teach students.
The “Recognizing Fierce Educators” session brought together Dr. Krishna Pakala, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Biomedical Engineering at Boise State University and Dr. Stefanie Boyer, Professor of Marketing at Bryant University, who shared their challenges and successes. The session also featured Harriet Seitler, Executive Vice President and Brand Officer at Course Hero, who participated in the session’s panel discussion.
The entire event can viewed on demand here.
Dr. Pakala shared the lessons he learned during COVID-19 and beyond to support student success, as he transitioned to a “Pandemic Professor of Engineering.” Over the years, there’s been a paradigm shift in how professors can support their students and improve undergraduate education, both inside and outside the classroom. The new paradigm revolves around outcome-based education and ensuring that students become active learners, critical thinkers and focused on collaborative learning and products.
The pandemic has made teaching and learning challenging for everybody, with not only COVID-19 concerns but political issues and other health conditions Pre-pandemic, Pakala said his focus was on connection, inclusion and awareness that technology has to be used more. “Pre-pandemic, I started using virtual office hours to meet with students for an hour twice a week to problem solve and chat about the course, which hit all the focus points,” he said.
When the pandemic hit and schools quickly transitioned to remote teaching and learning, Pakala thought that some changes were in order. “We had to support students and faculty so they could embrace and become more comfortable with digital technologies,” he explained. “Also, some things we took for granted had to change. The syllabus and schedule and communications had to have a more empathetic tone because of the uncertainty we all are facing.”
Pakala stressed to students that it is important to stay flexible and most importantly, that he is there to support their intellectual growth. Some of his innovative ideas included having in-class icebreakers, a visit from the local mayor in which class members shared their pets online. He also uses social media to engage with students.
Bryant University’s Dr. Stefanie Boyer shared her experiences teaching, collaborating and building an educational technology tool over the past 18 months. “Essentially what I do is teach students how to create relationships and grow them through conversations. It’s very hands-on teaching, very much feedback-oriented,” Boyer explained. “And this very hands-on applied learning environment became hands off and really turned upside down.”
With the shutdowns, students out with COVID and virtual classes, Boyer needed to come up with a new model for teaching as students were losing motivation and the strategies she used in the past no longer worked. She collaborated with technology gurus in the university to develop an app.
Before the pandemic, Boyer’s group had designed a bot that could do a 15-minute roleplay game. Students would have a conversation with a customer bot, which would listen and adapt based on the student responses. After the pandemic hit, to facilitate and encourage conversations, Boyer designed a speed cell game, which teaches students how to sell themselves in an interview situation, for instance.
“Students watched a series of 19 short videos that taught about presence and storytelling techniques, for instance, took quizzes on them and wrote their story based on what they learned,” Boyer explained. “This helps students think about themselves objectively and builds confidence.”
To date, more than 12,000 students have played the game and students have done more than 200,000 practice plays. Those that did at least 100 role plays with the bots get into a 100-plus club.
Course Hero’s Harriet Seitler joined the speakers for an open panel discussion. “Crises open people’s hearts and that holds true about what we’ve gone through over the past 18 months,” she said. “We’ve broken open as a community in a way that if we do it right, we’ll be putting our best food forward with empathy, honesty, out of necessity and out of hope, understanding student needs and educators needs and rising up to meet those needs.”
For more articles from the Fierce Education Leadership event, see: