As the University of Arkansas prepares to return to in-person instruction in fall, Walton MBA professors Tomas Jandik and Christian Hofer reflect on teaching during the pandemic.
On Thursday, March 12, 2020, Chancellor Joe Steinmetz announced all in-person classes would be suspended starting Monday, March 16. Staff and faculty braced for an avalanche of technical difficulties and student questions.
“Covid was a game changer,” says Tomas Jandik, professor of finance and Dillard’s Chair in Corporate Finance at the Walton College. “One day we were at work, second day there is a lock down.”
After a two-semester hiatus, new policies, technology and contingency plans allowed University of Arkansas students to return to campus in a limited capacity in Fall 2020. Auditoriums were updated, fitted with new cameras, microphones and charging stations. Yellow caution tape lined rows of auditorium seats and seating charts were carefully curated to ensure proper social distancing. Auditoriums with 300-person capacities were now used to offer in-person instruction to classes comprised of 50 students.
As Christian Hofer, associate professor of Supply Chain Management, prepared to offer second-year Executive MBA students a dual in-person and remote attendance course in Fall 2020, he knew he could not connect with students the way he had in the past.
“At first, the remote students were almost an afterthought since I didn’t think I could effectively cater to both the in-person and remote student groups at the same time. It was the students that came to me and said, ‘Hey, we enjoyed the class, but maybe you could try and engage us a little more at home.’”
Hofer alternated questions directed towards in-person and remote students to offer equal opportunities for engagement in the classroom. “I was grateful for the students’ input and feedback,” he says. “In the end, it made for a much better learning experience for everyone.”
Jandik says the pandemic forced him to be more effective and efficient.
“There are always going to be students that can’t come to class. At any given point in time, I am able to keep those students as informed and as able to learn as the students who are actually coming to class.”
Hofer had to rethink his teaching style and develop new processes to accommodate teaching during the pandemic. “You start to update and improve what you do to make it work,” Hofer says. “It made [my course] better.”
Jandik and Hofer are both looking forward to a more normal semester in Fall 2021.
“The University of Arkansas spent a lot of resources to keep the classrooms open,” Jandik says. “That’s one of the major benefits the Walton College and University of Arkansas can provide to students in the current times.”
Hofer says it will take continued efforts to remind people that we have plans, infrastructure and policies in place. “We’re monitoring continuously and if needed we will adapt and adjust and change plans,” he says. “I have faith in the university leadership.”
Read more about the return to face-to-face classes this fall.
