How Pandemic Changed Education

Kenton Seaver, Director of Academic Operations, The University of Texas at Dallas

Kenton Seaver, Director of Academic Operations, The University of Texas at Dallas

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a seismic shift in The University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management (JSOM).When the building shut to all but essential workers, tasks that once filled staff members’ calendars—greeting visitors, arranging faculty travel, purchasing, printing documents—were reduced or eliminated. Students, staff, and faculty all saw their daily dynamic drastically change, and all had questions and needs related to navigating the new virtual landscape. Core areas, such as recruiting, working with students, faculty and staff work duties, and overall technological resources, all were altered to function in a virtual, non-centralized manner.

Recruiting students, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, has always been a strength for the JSOM. During the COVID pandemic, previously successful face to face trips to local high schools, as well as in person functions that brought graduate students onto campus, had to be cancelled. In their place, virtual meetings aimed at specific high schools were conducted by the undergraduate recruitment office. In those sessions, students and parents were able to interact with JSOM staff and ask questions related to a variety of subjects, ranging from core classes, degree plans, and financial aid opportunities. At the graduate level, specialized webinars known as Yockets were utilized to recruit students domestically and internationally. During these sessions, the JSOM Graduate Dean’s officeanswered questions and gave guidance to incoming graduate students about how the school was meeting their needs and making sure that even in a pandemic, the well-being of our students was our foremost goal.

After the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic set in and UT Dallas switched to predominantly virtual learning and work environments, JSOM faculty and staff members realized that students were at risk of being overlooked and not having their needs met. In response, various remedies were created to ensure engagement was not lost. At the graduate level, Dr. Monica Powell, senior associate dean and graduate dean at the Jindal School, designed a series of seminars and chats in conjunction with her team aimed at JSOM graduate students for the purpose of engagement. These sessions were called “Monthly Chat with the Jindal School Graduate Dean”: live video sessions where Dr. Powell provided school updates and information that helped those who attend advance their degrees and careers. Each session had a question-and-answer portion, and one session was conducted in the early morning to accommodate internationally based students and another in late morning/early afternoon to accommodate local students.

One of the most significant and far-reaching changes created because of COVID 19 was in the way staff and students communicated with each other. Although students had questions related to navigating the new virtual landscape, their ability to get quick answers had vanished.In response to this need, the Dean’s Office and Advising staffworked together and came up with the JSOM Question Desk. This new creation expanded the resources accessible to both new and continuing students. Even after classes went back to face to face, the Question Desk did not go away. The JSOM Question Desk is an example of something created out of necessity, but maintained today out of success.

"One of the most significant and far-reaching changes created because of COVID 19 was in the way staff and students communicated with each other."

Another truly significant aspect of virtual education created in response to the pandemic was how students attended classes. In the Spring of 2020, JSOM and the rest of UTD were forced to switch to a completely online (both synchronous and asynchronous) delivery of classes. However, in the Fall of 2020, UTD and JSOM embraced a unique and diverse way of delivering instruction. Five separate modes of instruction, known as the 5 modalities, was introduced and students (depending on the course in which they were enrolled) had five different methods of instruction available to them. The first was Traditional, where the instructor and students are present in the classroom and meet according to the class schedule. During the pandemic,however, social distancing mandated these classes be much smaller than they had been in past semesters. The second mode, that of the Blended (Hybrid), is a mix of online activity and face to face classroom meetings. For example, if a class is Monday/Wednesday, the Monday portion might be in class and the Wednesday portion could be virtual. Flexible, also known as Hyflex, allowed for all instruction to be done in the classroom. Students rotated between attending in person and attending online. Remote courses are when instruction is delivered online in real time. Lastly, fully online courses are for students who want to complete the course at a distance in an asynchronous manner.

While the modalities mentioned earlier impacted the way students attended JSOM classes, the faculty trusted to deliver the academic content had to also contend with the modalities as instructors. Being allowed to choose what modality a class was to be delivered allowed the faculty member to create content that could best be delivered to their students, and in the manner they felt was appropriate. Students offered a face-to-face option were pleased to have the choice to be in a classroom, while those attending in a remote or online fashion were able to know that they were getting strong content delivered in a safe manner. Another resource created to assist faculty in transitioning tomodalities wasthe creation of “Super-Users”. Simply put, every program in JSOM was assigned a faculty member who was experienced in creating and delivering and delivering virtual content, and that instructor was assigned as the go-to person for other faculty who needed assistance in creating curriculum for the 5 modalities.

Many of the ways JSOM was able to successfully address the pandemic in terms of teaching students and helping faculty revolved around technology, but without the people using that technology and making sure it worked, none of the changes addressed would have been possible. These adaptations were vital to the success of the students enrolled in our school, but together as a team JSOM was able to successfully make a difficult transition without losing any of the student-centered focus which we pride ourselves upon.

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