Justin Balog, first year instructor at WCC, in his home office. Balog is teaching two sections of English 111 virtually this semester. Photo: Justin Balog
By Debra Destefani
Deputy Editor
Student safety is the main focus in the process of returning to in-person classes, often eclipsing the struggles and experiences that parents, instructors, and teachers are facing nationwide.
Although the quality of online learning varies depending on where you are in the country, here at WCC, the story is a bit different. Many instructors have already taught classes virtually before, or in some cases, for many years. Additional training provided by WCC before beginning the fall semester helped bolster teachers’ experience with Zoom and synchronous online meetings even more.
Justin Balog, a new instructor at Washtenaw, is teaching two sections of English 111 this fall. Balog, who graduated from U of M, was impressed with the scope of online resources WCC provided to teachers.
“There were a lot of webinars and faculty professionability seminars where they offer a small stipend for completing them…It’s made the transition online a lot smoother,” Balog said.
“There are some slight hiccups in the beginning accessing resources and difficulty finding who to contact, but those kinds of things happen at any job. The resources Washtenaw has made available to faculty and instructors has been incredible; I’m as prepared as possible.”
A similar sentiment was shared by Ian Rush, an instructor with the department of social sciences who is teaching two history classes this semester.
“In order to teach [distance learning] at WCC, we have to take a course called Introduction to Teaching Online. I took this class over the summer…It definitely made me feel better prepared to handle a DL course,” said Rush.
“I have also had some Zoom training for Virtual classes. But to be honest, I have learned more about Zoom by simply logging on, trying it out and adjusting the settings.”
Engagement from students–especially as the semester wears on–continues to be an important factor in their success. Most teachers use physical cues to measure if their students are engaged or not (zoning out, yawning, head nodding, etc.) These indicators are lost over Zoom or Webinar meetings, especially if a student disables their camera.
“They could just be listening to audio and not even looking at the screen. It’s going to rely a lot more on the students’ self-discipline to pay attention to what is being said. Bottom line is in situations like this: students get out of it what they put in,” said Jeff Daniels, a business and computer tech instructor at WCC.
Tips for students to make the distance learning process smoother include using the “raise hand” feature, staying muted while not actively asking a question, and paying close attention to Blackboard.
Balog also suggests physically writing down important info on paper, such as announcements and due dates, as well as separating work spaces from relaxation spaces in order to help with motivation.
There is a shared level of anxiety as teachers and students learn how to navigate this “new normal” together. An additional request made by Daniels: “Wish us all luck.”
