Finding a balance

To adjust to the new landscape of digital classrooms, faculty in the College of Natural Resources and Environment and all across campus have had to find new ways to keep their students engaged and on task while being adaptive to the challenges of moving classes online.

Ive worked to engage with students, but Ive also tried not to stress them out, explained Assistant ProfessorJ.P. Gannon, who teaches environmental informatics in theDepartment of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation. My approach has been to work on the challenges in a direct way, trying to get my students to talk with me.

To facilitate that conversation, Gannon conducted multiple surveys to gauge how the adjustments to video lectures and labs have gone for his students and where he could make improvements. When youre up in front of the class, you can adjust on the fly if you get the sense that something isnt connecting, he noted. You cant get that same sense lecturing online, so its important to have ways to get feedback that you can use to make adjustments.

Gannon also used class surveys to lighten things up for students, creating avenues for students to brainstorm ideas for staying busy in this uncertain moment.

I did a survey asking students what they were doing to take their mind off things, and asked if I could share their answers with classmates so wed have a list of ideas. I made a slideshow with some of the strategies the students mentioned, from exercising and dancing, to playing Animal Crossing, or building forts. I even put in slides of what Ive been doing, whether its riding my bike or playing with my dogs. I think they appreciated knowing were all in this together.

From hands-on to learning at a distance

Much of the learning that takes place in the college is hands-on and outdoors, and professors are striving to make sure that students can still access some of the resources that are on campus or nearby.

Our forest resources field experience course entails field labs taught by several faculty members, said Associate Professor Eric Wiseman, who teaches urban forestry. The lab that I teach each year is our first opportunity to expose students to the professions of urban forestry and arboriculture. In the past Ive arranged to bring four or five arborists and urban foresters to the Hahn Horticulture Garden and set up field stations where they teach and demonstrate techniques of the professions.

To give current sophomores a chance to learn about the professions, Wiseman conducted a virtual urban forestry day, inviting arborists and urban foresters with a variety of backgrounds to participate in a Zoom class and round-robin discussion about the field and how students can prepare for careers in forestry.

We had a municipal forester, a commercial arborist, a consulting arborist, and a utility forester participate in the session, Wiseman said. They talked to the students about some of the things they do in their sectors of the field, and it was an opportunity for our students to ask questions of professionals.

For his wildlife fire ecology lab, Assistant ProfessorAdam Coatestook his students to the field virtually. I visited outdoor field locations in Fishburn Forest and the Jefferson National Forest where the students would have observed potential fire effects and prepared videos of what those labs would have entailed, he said.

Social science research in a changing world

In addition to being more innovative in the virtual classroom, researchers in the college are also adapting to the changing circumstances. For social scientists especially, who rely on face-to-face interviews with individuals or groups, the coronavirus pandemic has forced radical rethinking about how to safely conduct research.

To help them adjust, Assistant ProfessorAshley Dayer,of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, has been hosting virtual seminars through theSociety for Conservation Biologys Social Science Working Group to develop new solutions for the specific challenges that social scientists are facing.

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VA Tech Faculty Use Innovation / Engagement to Adapt to New Online Education Space - The Roanoke Star