teaching videos, some faculty have adapted
test materials to match. “I can make takehome
exams more comprehensive than inclass
exams,” said Mark Pierson. “Students
now have videos that they can review to
help them with homework and exams that
they did not have before.”
Another challenge: the physical space
in which instructors worked. COVID-19
didn’t just close university facilities. It also
closed local schools, day cares, and businesses.
Instructor Jonathan Boreyko found
that one of his greatest challenges was
holding a teaching space with small children
present. “I have four young children
at home, and my class is during lunch time.
The only office space in my house is right
next to the dining room, so my students
can hear my kids loudly eating and sometimes
they even barge in when my wife isn’t
looking. One day, one of my sons joined
my class with a lion mask on his face.”
Perhaps the greatest difficulty has been
maintaining lab experience. These handson
experiences provide direct contact with
the principles learned in textbooks, reinforcing
principles through tactile practice.
In most cases, this can be remedied by carrying
out experiments and demonstrations
on camera, but some research did translate
well to the virtual environment. Producing
code is an integral part of mechanics, and
some labs took the code students produced
into labs to
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