As a jazz trumpeter, Greg Simon is ready to go where the music takes him.
The assistant professor of composition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and director of the Glenn Korff School of Music’s jazz ensemble, has spent the summer writing up a trio of lesson plans to meet whatever shape the fall semester takes.
“The real work is developing plans that we can quickly move between if the situation deteriorates,†said Simon, referring to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that forced UNL to abruptly move to online-only instruction in March.
Simon has written one plan for face-to-face instruction, one for a hybrid model where students flex between in-person and online learning, and one if UNL is forced to once again suspend on-campus activities.
Any one of the plans is doable in and of itself, but after COVID-19 knocked the spring semester onto a different trajectory, Simon said he’s doing all he can to think of ways to keep students engaged in his classes.
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“Starting face-to-face in August and being fully remote by the end of the term is the nightmare scenario,†he said. “I’m doing my best to prep for it.â€
UNL began its preparations for the fall semester in April after NU President Ted Carter announced the university system intended for students to return for in-person classes on each of its campuses.
Plans for returning to campus include requiring faculty and students to wear masks, the addition of hand sanitizing stations and reconfigured learning spaces aimed at reducing density and adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Using computer drafting equipment, UNL overlaid a honeycomb pattern onto its lecture halls, computer labs and other classroom settings that would allow students and faculty to remain 6 feet apart, said Jack Dohrman, the university’s space director.
“If a classroom normally held 40 students, it will hold 15 to 18 right now,†he said.
Other spaces, including cavernous lecture halls, conference rooms used for smaller seminar classes, and even the horse arena on East Campus have all been redesigned amid the pandemic, a key step for faculty in determining how to move forward this fall.
“Once instructors know what’s available to them and how many students they can get in, they’ll know how to structure their classes,†Dohrman said.
Meanwhile, UNL has also offered seminars to prepare faculty for a range of possibilities this fall, from in-person classes to a mix of face-to-face and online education — what UNL is referring to as a hybrid-flexible model, or “Hyflex†— to entirely remote learning.
Faculty have been trained to upload their curriculum materials to Canvas, an online learning management system used by UNL, as well as other technologies, and worked on strategies to keep students engaged no matter how coursework is being delivered.
More than 700 faculty attended a summer series hosted by UNL’s Center for Transformative Teaching, according to director Nick Monk, as the university seeks to help instructors maintain “appropriate pedagogical standards†expected by students.
Another 200 are currently engaged in workshops offered throughout July with titles like “Having a Great First Week Online,†“How to Support Engaging and Thoughtful Discussions Online†and “Remotely Facilitating an In-Person Course.â€
“As students are engaged in active learning, working together in groups, working with faculty to generate their own knowledge and ideas, we want to ensure we don’t let those standards drop,†Monk said. “We don’t want to lose sight of what the best practice is.â€
Despite the resources and efforts poured into rethinking how a UNL education will be delivered this fall, there is trepidation among some faculty, instructors and graduate teaching assistants about how a once-in-a-century pandemic will affect their classrooms.
And like Simon, some fear what a surge in cases would mean for student outcomes this year.
With no space big enough to safely accommodate the 200 students expected to enroll in Colin Meiklejohn’s genetics class this fall, the assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences said he is making arrangements to deliver his lectures remotely.
Meiklejohn said students indicated the most difficult part of the spring semester was the shock created by the sudden shift in attendance expectations and how grading would take place.
“I just think that by having the class be remote from the get-go, we avoid that stress of the transition if and when it happens,†he said. “To me, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.â€
But the choice to deliver lectures remotely begets more choices.
Does Meiklejohn record lectures ahead of class and post them for students to watch at their convenience — what educators refer to as “asynchronous learning†— or does he do them live via Zoom during a scheduled class time to create some opportunity for students to interact with their instructor?
UNL is also requiring on-campus courses to “provide a meaningful on-campus experience,†which creates an additional dynamic Meiklejohn said he is trying to manage.
Any on-campus experience for 200 people would likely be outdoors, weather permitting, and see students positioned “10 feet apart, wearing masks and just kind of yelling at each other,†he said.
Still other employees have chosen to conduct their classes remotely to protect their health or the health of loved ones.
As part of its reopening plans, UNL is offering employees 65 and older, or those with health conditions that put them at higher risk to COVID-19, or those who care for family with conditions, to apply for dispensation to continue working from home.
Marianna Burks, a biology instructor and science specialist with UNL’s TRIO program, applied for the accommodation to protect a member of her family.
She’ll teach remotely this fall, missing the in-person interactions with students she called the best part of her day.
“I do know that this pandemic is unprecedented, and eventually we will resume to consistent engagements,†Burks said. “But for the moment, I am thankful that I can continue my course, although delivered through mostly technological platforms.â€
The roughly 20-member jazz ensemble Simon directs won’t have to wrestle with space issues when it gathers next month, but Simon said he has concerns about the potential spread of respiratory droplets through trombones or saxophones.
Preliminary findings from a study commissioned by several band groups suggests limiting rehearsal times to no more than 30 minutes, and clearing out the space to allow HVAC systems to circulate air.
With a 90-minute rehearsal block scheduled, Simon said the challenge becomes finding a way to make non-rehearsal intervals as meaningful as the time the jazz ensemble will spend blowing their horns.
“Most music faculty around the country are trying to figure out what the best practices are for their ensembles,†he said. “Nobody has a good answer at this point.â€
For her Writing in Communities class, which satisfies a general education requirement, English graduate teaching assistant Charlotte Kupsh said the fall semester is “an extreme balancing act.â€
On the one hand, Kupsh said she must build a robust class with meaningful experiences for students like discussions or workshops for students' writing, while on the other hand creating enough asynchronous content for students who get sick or do not feel comfortable attending class.
“There isn’t a body of scholarship on this hybrid model like there is with online learning,†Kupsh said. “If we were teaching all online, there is a wealth of shared knowledge on how to teach well. We have almost no precedent for teaching half-online and half in-person.â€
And as an employee whose contract doesn’t begin until Aug. 17 — the day classes start — Kupsh said preparing for an array of teaching scenarios has created added strain for the hundreds of graduate instructors across UNL.
“It’s always been an issue,†she said. “But even more so because of all the extra labor this is requiring.â€
Monk said the Center for Transformative Teaching has helped faculty and instructors work through a slew of concerns since the pandemic begin and continues to do so as the 2020-21 school year approaches.
“I think people are starting to feel more reassured than they were, and I detect a sense of optimism around the systems we’ve set up, but it’s not without trepidation,†Monk said.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7120 or cdunker@journalstar.com.
On Twitter @ChrisDunkerLJS
Sofia Saric contributed to this story.