Professors speak on teaching in-person classes during the pandemic
October 12, 2021
Quinnipiac University professors are continuing to adapt to in-person classes after over a year of hybrid or strictly virtual courses.
While professors prefer teaching students in-person, some say the transition was sudden for many students.
“It’s a weird transition,”Charles Rosecrans, an adjunct professor of art, said. “It’s abrupt. It’s like alright you’re back to doing things and then everyone is like well I was comfortable doing it the other way and now I have to do it this way.”
Although students are learning to adjust, Rosecrans states that being in-person has differed from teaching online due to the variation of student participation.
“My teaching style is more effective for me to be in class,” Rosecrans said. “A lot of the time in a studio course it is sort of about the dynamic within the room. The students end up setting the vibe.”
Professors have been eager to return to in-person classes because they missed the environment of being on campus. Jill Fehleison, a professor of history and the director of interdisciplinary studies mentions that she likes running into students and faculty members that she knows.
“I missed seeing former students as you walk across campus,” Fehleison said. “Now I’m more likely to bump into people and that was a thing that I had really forgotten how much I enjoyed that.”
Fehleison adds that she sympathizes with the juniors and seniors because a majority of their college experience has not been ideal due to the pandemic.
“I’m really impressed with how they’ve tried to soldier on,” Fehleison said. “I hope that students know that we know that, and we know it’s been a struggle. It’s been a struggle for us and for them and we’re all sort of inching back to a little more normal.”
Anne Marie Chuckrey, an adjunct professor of Spanish, was excited to see her students in class instead of a computer screen. However, Chuckrey still enforces COVID-19 mandates in the classroom to continue to keep herself and the students safe.
“I think it’s working as long as everyone is following the rules,” Chuckrey said. “I find that my two classes are doing what they have to do, and they have their masks on for most of the time, maybe one or two of them go below their noise sometimes but I just tell them to put it up.”
Chuckrey adds that being online does not compare to the environment of teaching her students in-person, and is delighted to be back in the classroom.
“It’s hard for all of us but we’ll get through it and hopefully this won’t last forever,” Chuckrey said. “But it’s joyful to be back in the classroom and to be there with them physically, it does make a difference, it really does.”
