UMass Professor Reflects On Moving Her College Classes Online And Creating A 'Place Of Normalcy'

Today marks one year since Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts due to the spread of the coronavirus, and GBH News is marking the anniversary with all-day special coverage, A Year Apart: How COVID Changed Us. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with UMass Boston political science professor Erin O'Brien about what online teaching has been like over the year since the pandemic began. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Joe Mathieu: I listen back to that interview [from a year ago]. It was a scary time. We had no idea what we were walking into.

Erin O'Brien: None. I listened back in advance of this interview as well. And it's funny to me, just the tech side, I didn't know anything. Now I know Zoom, I know Blackboard, I know this interface, I know that interface. We can all adapt relatively quickly. The concerns for the students remain the same, but it is amazing how quickly we turned it around. I didn't miss a class even though a pandemic struck [and] we had to totally go online. Most people were able to do it quickly, but there were definitely students that probably fell through the cracks, and it's hard to find them. You can only send so many emails to a student before they can't respond or you don't know why they're not responding.

WATCH: "I'm running my class like it's a physical class."

Mathieu: I know what it's like when you're used to being in person then you're on Zoom, and now everybody's talking on top of each other, nobody knows how to do this and you're muted. How easy has it been to get students to open up? Do they want to talk because they don't normally have that anymore?

O'Brien: I think so. As adults — especially I'm a Ph.D. in political science [and] I really know my area — it's been good for the classroom to see the faculty itself struggle. Like, "Dr. O'Brien, you're on mute," or I'm like, "how do I get the screen to go up?" I think that creates a nice camaraderie. Some students I do think that are more silent in the classroom are more apt to talk. But the chat is a nightmare. I got rid of the chat in my classes because I'm teaching public policy during a pandemic with several impeachments, an insurrection. It's so hot politically right now that the chat feature — I'm not talented enough to run my class, run the PowerPoint, try to get everybody to participate and read the chat, and the chat can explode. Like one day the mask policy came up and the students are angry at each other and I have no idea why. Then I look at the chat. So I've learned things like that, that unregulated conversation wasn't good in my particular class. But I do think some students who are less apt to participate feel more comfortable. I was really down on online education. I still don't think it's superb.

Mathieu: You said that you don't believe in it. When I listen back to this, you said, "I'm not a believer." So how would [you] say that today?

O'Brien: Joe, you're not supposed to listen to what I say! I still don't love [online education], but I think I've been able to do a lot more with it than I would have ever guessed. And I think that's because the students have gone in willing and because I loosened up a little bit, got a little bit more flexible and tried to look at it as what can this medium help me do as opposed to the things it can't do. I miss the social capital. I think part of the reason sometimes conversation can get so hot in a chat or something like that is because they don't walk in and out of class together. They just don't have that soft skill, that soft grace you extend to one another. But I'm going to say something I rarely say: I was perhaps a little bit wrong on... online education. But I think what I also learned is there's such gradation in online education. I don't believe in the model of record yourself, put the video up, they answer discussion questions and you never interact. That is garbage in my book. I'm doing face-to-face conversations, office hours [and having] them hang out prior. Unsurprisingly, I like the model I've developed because it's the degree to which I'm trying to approximate that classroom. And I've learned that even though I think I'm maybe more rigid than some of the other faculty — I've got several rounds of teaching evaluations — the students like that. They like having somewhere normal to go.

Mathieu: You'll be in person next year, I presume. We've got local students going back. Middle school, elementary and high school is preparing to be back in the next couple of weeks. Will that happen to you before the end of this year?

O'Brien: No. We're remote through the end of the semester and summer. K through 12 educators have been prioritized, but higher ed has not been prioritized. I would guess we're back in some sort of hybrid model. It all depends on vaccination. We've got to get 18,000 students on and off campus. That's not a pod. I think UMass Boston has been really great about it, but I think everyone's ready to get back. I don't miss the commute, but I miss hanging out in the hallway [and] I miss office hours conversations. I miss that aspect of the job a lot.