By Mimi Huckins ‘21
Features Editor
In the fall of 2020, fully remote learning and the new module system meant professors were uncertain about what challenges the semester would bring. Remote learning continued through the winter into the spring semester as we witnessed rising COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Mount Holyoke is now in its final fully remote module, and the College community is able to reflect on the remote year: the difficulties, successes and new practices that we will implement moving forward.
Chris Benfey, English
Professor of English Chris Benfey has kept a positive spirit throughout the academic year. “I’ve looked for what’s positive, instead of just feeling that we miss things,” Benfey said. “I think it’s the same experience with the pandemic. There’s a lot of grief, a lot of pain, a lot of loss, a lot of sense of what is missing. I’ve tried to think about possible learning opportunities in … the midst of a pretty horrific year.”
Reflecting on his experience, he noted that he has viewed the remote classroom as one of immense difficulty but also one with surprising benefits. Benfey sees the experience of remote learning as an experiment. The concept of digital learning in relation to time and space has interested Benfey immensely throughout the academic year. “[Digital learning] both eliminates distance, like we’re all just right there in the same place at the same virtual time, but it also kind of reestablishes distance, like we’re all made aware that some of us are in South Hadley, some of us are in California, some of us are in China, some of us are in India,” Benfey said.
He finds distance an “invigorating” aspect of online learning. When it comes to the idea of time, Benfey feels Zoom has allowed us to communicate faster and much more immediately than in-person learning. Benfey, like other professors, has found Moodle forums a useful platform to slow things down. “They give people a chance to think a little bit before joining a conversation,” Benfey said.
In this module, Benfey is teaching a course on Emily Dickinson, the famous poet who briefly attended Mount Holyoke College. He has found the course’s subject matter helpful in creating the sense of an on-campus experience. “In a strange way, we’re trying to reestablish this residential experience on campus that Emily Dickinson had, even as we are sort of these ghosts,” Benfey said, “nowhere and everywhere.”
Although studying Dickinson is inevitably tied to Mount Holyoke and the town of Amherst, the variety of students’ locations enriches the learning experience in some ways. “On one hand, it couldn’t be a worse time [to teach this course], and on the other hand, I have students living on campus in South Hadley, I have students living in Amherst, right off Main Street, where Emily Dickinson lived, I have students abroad in places where Emily Dickinson is a known presence,” Benfey said. “People in Japan, China, France and Germany are really excited about Emily Dickinson; she is a world poet. So in some ways, we’re able to zero in on different aspects of her current … survival, her current presence internationally.”
Aside from the obvious differences between remote learning and in-person learning, Benfey has discovered that the numerous situations we have found ourselves in this past year –– the pandemic, countless instances of racial injustice, issues of gun violence and other violations of human rights — have found an important place in his classroom. “In addition to the microcosm of the classroom, we’re dealing with this very chaotic period in history. I think one thing I’ve tried to be open to in the classroom is just more of a porous relationship to what’s going on out there, what’s going on in the real world, a willingness to let class discussion move into that larger dimension,” Benfey said. Benfey has found a way to take the most difficult and painful aspects of our current lives and turn them into an opportunity to learn and reflect on this important moment in history.
Although in-person classes will return in the fall, some aspects of online learning may stick around. “I am going to go on using Moodle forums because I like them as an adjunct to the classroom. I think we are likely to continue to have some … virtual student presence,” Benfey predicted. “We will get used to having a Zoom connection. … Most classes, I think, will continue to experiment with various kinds of blended classrooms.”
Alanna Hoyer-Leitzel, Mathematics
Assistant Professor of Mathematics Alanna Hoyer-Leitzel sees this academic year as a balancing act. “I think that there are things I could do to make the class a little bit more accessible, but my own sanity would suffer. So there’s this balance that I think is really important. So I’m like, ‘Okay, I can handle it this way. It’s a little bit hard for me, and it was also a little bit hard for my students, but let’s meet in the middle.’”
Hoyer-Leitzel has worked to engage students more this year by holding required office hours and creating a Moodle forum for questions. Although these have proved successful, Hoyer-Leitzel feels that it is still important to acknowledge the varying ways students show their engagement. Not only that, but she feels it is important to recognize the wear of isolation and how that may affect their participation in the course.
“I think there are people for whom, they’re like me, they’ve been stuck in this one room for six months, and it’s starting to wear on them. And that is hard,” Hoyer-Leitzel said. She has attempted to remain understanding of the difficulties her students are facing by being more flexible on due dates. “Because of the pace of the course, everybody’s going to need a little bit of extra time on something at some point,” Hoyer-Leitzel said. “So being able to give that to the students was important to me.”
Similarly to Benfey, Hoyer-Leitzel sees herself implementing some new practices in future in-person classes. In an attempt to lessen the amount of time she spends grading homework assignments, she has made half the regular assignments a quiz on Moodle graded for completion, while the other half remain in the typical homework format. Additionally, for her 200-level classes, Hoyer-Leitzel has implemented assignments to complete before class in order for students to review concepts needed for the class before the actual meeting begins.
“I think I might keep that up just to prime students for the class each day,” Hoyer-Leitzel said, “so that we can build on the harder concepts in class. … That way we can come into class, and I can say, ‘Well, you already did this. So let’s move on to the next thing, and spend time on the hard stuff when we’re together.’”
Overall, Hoyer-Leitzel has learned that it is important to remain understanding. “It’s been a hard year for all of us,” she said. “[We need to be] gentle with ourselves. Making sure we [are] understanding and being nice to each other [is] really important. I try very hard to do that with myself, my students and my colleagues.”