Milligan University transferred to a semi online format this semester due to the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain both education and safety. This follows the trend in society of daily life and a more distanced approach to gatherings to protect the community.
Online classes have become an expectation across the country. Milligan chose to offer a mixed system, with in-person classes, online classes, and hybrid classes. The transition to this system created a few hurdles to overcome.
“It’s difficult in many ways because the student body is entirely made up of digital natives but the professors are not,” said first-year Digital Media professor Karahann Kiser. “The online format comes with added difficulty for professors of adapting their class to fit an online format, in many cases, but they also are not provided with adequate training to do so. Training would equip them with the techniques and skills they need to teach the course with the same excellence as they would in person.”
The pandemic required a rapid change in the way that courses are taught. Unfortunately, with that urgent transition, there are still some aspects of the increased online presence still waiting to be ironed out.
“When online courses started to gain traction a couple of decades ago, it was commonly accepted that some subjects would be well-suited to online learning but others would not,” said Professor Jeff Miller. “That recognition has been slowly slipping away. Ideas such as a fully-online degree program or an online institution come with an assumption that all types of courses can be done, and done well, online. The pandemic is putting this assumption to the test. I believe the assumption will fail that test.”
Miller said “I would rather teach in-person, by a million miles.”
Professors are not the only ones affected by this transition. Despite growing up in the digital era, students are faced with an immediate transition to a more online friendly way of learning.
“I find that some classes are much more translatable to an online format than others,” said Milligan senior Drew Burton. “But classes like labs are next to impossible without direct in-person supervision from the instructor.”
Some students have had an easier transition.
“I have an optimistic view of online classes,” said junior Samir Koko. “When we first had them introduced for all courses last spring, I’m not gonna lie, it was rough. But I think that was because it caught the professors off guard a little bit. I guess it comes down to the professors and how well they can transition and adapt to the new style of teaching.”
The University has announced that the hybrid plan will continue for the spring semester.
Headline photo: Credit milligan.edu