Last spring, Winthrop University made the decision on March 13 to initiate two weeks of online remote learning at the end of spring break because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally thought that after three weeks, students would be able to come back to campus. Instead, Winthrop was forced to tell their students that they had to move off campus until the fall semester.
Now that it is September and school has started back up, faculty members and students have several opinions and concerns about returning to campus.
Incoming freshman psychology major Penelope Williams said that her biggest concern this semester is that she is worried about not having the normal instruction.
“I am more nervous about this semester than I originally was because I have never had to do anything like this before,” Williams said. “My first semester of college and it’s online.”
Dr. Douglas Presley, associate director of bands at Winthrop, said there were multiple things that he had to change about the way that he teaches. Because of social distancing guidelines, he has had to break up his symphonic band class into four small bands. Presley also said that he had to buy new music that was better suited for the four small bands he has created.
Presley normally meets with the symphonic band on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. But now with these four small bands, he will meet with two of the bands on Tuesday and the other two bands on Thursday, with each band meeting for twenty minutes.
In addition to teaching symphonic band, Presley also teaches basic conducting classes. He said that while he was doing this preparation, he had to make sure the content of his classes was the
same no matter what.
“I’m trying to make sure the content isn’t different. Face to face or online, the content has to be the same.”
Presley said that he spent extra time over the summer making sure his classes could work in case Winthrop decided to go 100% online. However, he said that he and Dr. Lorrie Crochet, director of bands at Winthrop, ultimately came to the decision that if classes were to be put 100% online, there would be no band.
“At the end of the day, face to face instruction and interaction with people is the most important element,” Presley said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do and make the students do whatever they have to do for us to meet face to face. I feel it’s important we (faculty) connect with the kids and they actually see a real face and not a digital face.”
Dr. Dustin Hoffman, associate professor of English, spoke of the things he is doing differently this semester due to COVID-19 restrictions. He said he “and most of my colleagues are doing twice the work that we usually do…if we’re doing face to face, we’re probably also planning online.”
He noted that he has never before had to make two versions of one class. Hoffman also said that he has made preparations in case Winthrop has to move to completely online instruction by taking online training over the summer with his other colleagues. Despite this preparation, he does have some concerns about this semester.
Hoffman said that virtual office hours and not being able to fully see faces and “read the room” will be challenging aspects when teaching his courses this semester.
Senior mass communication major Morgan Alexander said that he is not worried about his classes this semester because teachers are more prepared than they were in March when Winthrop had to quickly switch to remote learning. One thing Alexander is worried about, however, is whether everyone on campus will follow the guidelines.
“It only takes one person to mess up and then we are back at home,” Alexander said.
Photo by Emma Crouch
