This spring, the Academic Continuity Planning Group initiated a survey of faculty and students seeking feedback on the remote teaching measures taken by the university to ensure the safety of the Saint Mary’s community during the spring COVID-19 response.
The purpose of the survey was to guide actions moving forward. The Office of Assessment administered the survey in late May receiving input from 188 faculty and 597 students. Analyzing the survey provided insights on the teaching and learning experiences of our students and faculty across campuses which will inform continued improvement.
Overall, students and faculty took many positives away from the remote teaching experience, but those from classes originally intended to be face-to-face understandably missed seeing their peers in person, asked for more preparation and support on technology tools, and worried about diminished learning.
As a result of the survey findings, Saint Mary’s is already taking the following steps:
- Planning a self-paced course for students to better orient them to courses designed to be online, remote teaching courses, and tools for learning remotely.
- Adding additional training for faculty in online teaching (to complement the experience gained in remote teaching) and modular course design to prepare for any future needs to move classes online.
- Investing more in educational technology staff and support, with two positions already posted to support faculty teaching online, teaching with educational technology tools, and the transition to the new learning management system.
Finally, as an incentive to fill out the survey, we offered the chance to win one of four $25 gift cards to Target. Congratulations to the following faculty and student winners who recently received notification:
Faculty:
- Colleen Weis, course-contracted assistant professor in the education program
- Bill Knutson, MED facilitator
- Lindsay O’Shea, course-contracted voice instructor
- Benjamin Pauli, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology
Students:
- Melissa Johnsen, SGPP
- Amy Anderson, SGPP
- Caroline Woodle, College
- Melissa Varner, College