The change to online affects students and faculty

Since March 23, Murray State students and faculty have had to adjust to a new normal of online classes.

Dr. Antje Gamble, assistant professor in art history, said this is a stressful situation due to the global pandemic resulting from COVID-19 and different classroom format. 

“Teaching in an emergency situation is harder because my class was not planned in an online format,” Gamble said. “I also teach online courses, but this is not the same.” 

Gamble said she is using a combination of synchronous lectures through Zoom and asynchronous lectures through Instagram to allow students to access the course material in different ways.

“I have a number of students still working  and living in other timezones, so I’m trying to provide course content in a variety of ways to reach all my students regardless of their availability and internet access,” Gamble said. 

She said she realizes the additional challenges her students are facing as most of them have different living situations than when living on campus during a regular semester and has modified her assignments to fit the new online format.

Dr. Lucia Unrau, music department chair, said, for her classes, the biggest challenges are internet issues, access to materials and not being able to collaborate with students and other faculty members. 

To combat this, with the help of the dean’s office in CHFA, the music department purchased 10 portable keyboards for a piano course that have been loaned to students, free of charge, so that they can practice at home. But obstacles still exist. 

“As we’ve moved online, my classes aren’t very interactive because of student internet and keyboard accessibility,” Unrau said. “I try to have phone or Zoom conversations with my students, but it’s hard.”

She has also relaxed the requirements in her classes. She said if her students have the essential skills to move to the next level, she is offering incomplete grades until the beginning of classes in August so they can continue in the core music classes. If the students can demonstrate their piano skills by Aug. 15, she will pass them in the class and they can move on. 

The faculty in the music department are also trying to decide what to do for senior awards and recognitions. 

“Many seniors are not able to do their recitals in a public venue – that is a culmination of many, many years of study,” Unrau said. “I feel badly for them, and I miss them.”  

Ashley Jolly, sophomore from Glasgow, Kentucky, said the classes that have changed the most are her classes that have labs. Jolly said her botany class doesn’t have access to microscopes and plant dissections anymore and have to rely on videos and lab pictures.

“It is harder to learn lab materials because it is not hands-on,” Jolly said.

Besides trying to gain the extra motivation to keep up with assignments, Jolly, a biology major, said she doesn’t believe she is receiving the same level of education she would get in a normal classroom.

“I’m lucky that the classes I’m taking aren’t upper level, but I’m still worried that I won’t be prepared for future classes,” Jolly said. “If this continues on for the fall semester, I have worries for my success in those classes.”

Gabrielle Dooley, senior from Hopkinsville, Kentucky, said several of her classes have opted out of having a final exam and have canceled a few assignments because they do not have access to resources in the clinic on campus. 

But while the way her classes work have changed, Dooley doesn’t think the quality of education has changed.

“In many ways the quarantine has made my professors more creative in their teaching styles and that has been very beneficial for me,” Dooley said.