The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

UPDATED: Sept. 23, 2020 at 12:49 p.m.

Syracuse University professor Daniel Curewitz has spent the past several months preparing for the increased workload of the fall semester.

He’s recorded lectures and fielded hundreds of emails from confused students, trying to figure out how to run his classes smoothly online.

“I’ve been working seven days a week for the past three months,” said Curewitz, an earth science and environmental science professor. 

SU has adopted a hybrid instruction model, in which students attend classes both in-person and virtually, to mitigate the spread of coronavirus during the fall semester. Even though the university provided faculty with guidance over the summer about adjusting their curriculum, some professors said the new learning model has caused them undue stress and has increased their workload dramatically. 

Christine Ashby, an education professor who coordinates the SU inclusive elementary and special education program, said her colleagues are abnormally tired for this early in the semester.

Ashby spent most of her summer altering the curriculum for her courses to account for social distancing. She’s still working to find ways to compensate for the field experience her students usually receive working with students in the Syracuse City School District.

“It’s been a real challenge for my freshmen class. They usually are in schools reading with kids once a week,” Ashby said. “It’s an emotionally tiring time for everybody because we feel for our students right now.”

Regina Ippolito has made her pre-recorded lectures half the length of her normal presentations to accommodate students’ shorter attention spans during online learning. But her workload has still nearly doubled under the new model, she said.

Ippolito, an adjunct professor who teaches wine appreciation at SU, has been able to hold food and wine tasting sessions for her class in-person, with plastic dividers installed to separate students. But for students studying remotely, she has had to make that portion of the class optional and film separate tasting instruction videos.

“I feel that (students) are getting the correct amount of content with the real-life experience of the tasting, which is the best of both worlds,” Ippolito said. “I only feel bad for the remote students for not being able to taste with me in person because I do think that’s hard to duplicate.”

Jonathan French, who teaches chemistry classes of 300 to 400 students, has spent the last few months recording lectures and embedding questions to make the presentations interactive. He has also changed his curriculum to rely less heavily on exams and has made multiple versions of each test to protect against cheating. 

“The spring semester didn’t end for me,” French said. “Once the summer started, I just basically got to work on the fall material.” 

Seth Gitner, a professor who teaches a multimedia storytelling class for freshmen, felt prepared for the transition to online learning. 

Gitner, who was a coordinator of a committee over the summer that explored ways to implement lab classes at Newhouse, said he’s teaching his classes like he normally does. The problems he does encounter are usually easy to solve, he said. 

Coran Klaver would disagree. Klaver, who teaches an English class and serves as chair of the English department, has found it challenging to monitor students who are in the classroom and those who are participating remotely through Zoom, especially in a discussion-based class. 

“You have to think ahead of time about what’s going to work for everybody in the classroom because there are fewer formats available,” Klaver said. 

The College of Arts and Science has supported faculty adjusting to the unfamiliar teaching environment, Klaver said. The college offered workshops over the summer and has approved the hiring of technology assistants for professors teaching hybrid classes. 

But budget cuts prevented the school from compensating faculty for their extra work over the summer to prepare, she said. 

“Even though people were working over the summer and they got a little bit of money from the college, it was like nothing compared to the kind of work people had to put in to prepare their classes if they were moving online,” Klaver said. 

Curewitz, like other professors, has encountered difficulties in moving his classes online and adjusting to the hybrid instruction model. 

Nonetheless, he thinks SU officials are making the best of challenging circumstances.

“It can be really frustrating, and every time I get really frustrated, I just remember, you know what, everybody’s going through this frustration,” Curewitz said. “It’s crazy. Breathe deeply. You’ll be fine.” 

 CLARIFICATION: In a previous version of this post, Seth Gitner’s role on a committee was unclear. The Daily Orange regrets this error. 

Published on September 16, 2020 at 11:56 pm

Contact Madison: [email protected]