07-19-2020 Education - Flipbook - Page 1
EDUCATION
SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2020 |
A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION OF BALTIMORE SUN MEDIA • SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2020
| THE BALTIMORE SUN
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AACC’s Business Pitch Competition finalists competed on Zoom on April 30 for their share of the $50,000 in seed funds awarded by the Philip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe
Foundation. Photo by Emily O’Donnell, courtesy of the Entrepreneurial Studies Institute at Anne Arundel Community College.
COVID-19-related initiatives on campus
Area schools make critical adjustments to programs and curriculums
By Emily Parks, Contributing Writer
T
he coronavirus pandemic has interrupted how we work, learn and go about our
daily lives. Teleconferencing and online
learning have replaced the office and
the classroom. Students, employees and
teachers are doing their best to rise up to meet
the challenges of remote learning and working
brought on by stay-at-home orders.
The stay-at-home order also has meant that
since we are not heading into the office, our dining rooms, living rooms and any spare spaces have
become home offices. With employees working
remotely, managers are learning to coach employees whose desk is no longer down the hall. Area
universities have created and adjusted some of
their coursework and programs to address these
new challenges to learning and working.
As part of the ASPIRE continuing education
program, Loyola University Maryland developed
two courses in response to the pandemic to
support educators and managers. The courses,
“Transitioning Your Learning Experience Online”
and “Managing Remote Employees,” promote
best practices to teach and work remotely. Both
courses are three hours long and students can take
the courses at their own pace.
The course “Transitioning Your Learning
Experience Online” supports educators in their
transition from the classroom to the computer
screen. The course is offered for free to educators
in the public and independent school systems.
Since its launch in early March, over 650 educators have completed the course. Educators learn
how to create activities and assignments that
engage the learner online using tools like Zoom
and how to record lessons in conjunction with a
PowerPoint presentation.
The course is beneficial in that it allows teachers to have a vital connection with their students.
“Educators tell us their students are craving a
continued sense of community,” Auburn Bell,
associate director for outreach, says. “This course
enables the educator to provide that classroom
sense of community and continuity in online
modules.”
Managers are challenged to keep employees
connected and motivated while working separately and remotely. “The course provides tactics
such as using a daily check-in with their team in
the morning to set specific goals for the day or
the week,” he says. He adds companies are starting
to actively measure productivity by department,
comparing productivity levels now versus prepandemic in an effort to guide future teleworking
policies.
Future implications for some companies may
include allowing some form of telecommuting
even once the office re-opens. “If working remotely proves to be successful for some companies,
upper management may examine the need for
their current office space,” he says. “Real estate
and rent are large costs for an organization, so
they may ask themselves, ‘Do we really need this
expense?’”
Due to distance, managers have to make more
of a regular effort to stay engaged with their
employees. Auburn advises managers to move
toward giving performance feedback on a weekly
or monthly basis instead of an annual review.
“Frequent communication and setting weekly
goals allows a manager to better identify when an
New initiatives with students in mind adapt on the fly
By Gregory J. Alexander, Contributing Writer
L
Mark Flores, lecturer at Towson University. Photo courtesy of Towson University.
stay in the area and are willing to give back to
our students,” Thornton Dill says. “Our faculty
engagement is what sets us apart, especially in the
college of arts and humanities. We like to say that
we are like a small liberal arts school with access to
the resources of a major research university.”
Part of the Be Worldwise, Get Worldready
initiative included retooling some existing majors
and launching new majors and minors. For exam-
Ask Margit
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
mbweisgal@gmail.com
COVID-19, continued on page 8
Schools quickly pivot to a virtual world
aunching a large-scale initiative at the
onset of a worldwide pandemic may not
be what the University of Maryland’s
college of arts and humanities had in
mind as far as timing goes. However, the
college’s Be Worldwise, Get Worldready
initiative’s goal of integrating career development
into education to better prepare students for life
after graduation may be happening at the ideal
time of global economic uncertainty.
“We’ve always produced students with skills
that are adaptive to changing workplaces, economies, what’s trending and how employment
opportunities develop, so it’s appropriate to prepare students to be able to clearly articulate their
skills, values and knowledge that they would
bring to the workplace,” says Bonnie Thornton
Dill, dean of the college of arts and humanities at
University of Maryland.
The college of arts and humanities’ Be
Worldwise, Get Worldready initiative (https://
arhu.umd.edu/academics/career-initiative) is a
multi-faceted one that involves strategic career
preparation, curricular innovations and capitalizing on UMD’s regional and alumni partnerships.
“Our career readiness component is unique
due to faculty engagement. We intentionally integrate career advisory into the academic curriculum. Also, we have incredible access to internship opportunities and alumni networks due to
our location’s proximity to Washington, D.C.,
Baltimore and Annapolis. Many of our alumni
Above: Starting this fall, McDaniel College will offer
the state’s first bachelor’s program in ASL studies.
Photo courtesy of McDaniel College. See article on page 4.
ple, the English major was retooled with a focus on
civic and cultural engagement and the launching
of areas for students to specialize in – literary and
cultural studies, language, writing and rhetoric,
media studies, and creative writing – that allow for
broader career options.
Virtual world, continued on page 7
STEVENSON
UNIVERSITY
The future according to
James Fielder:
Maryland’s Secretary of
Higher Education Looks
Forward
James Fielder, Ph.D., secretary of
Maryland’s Higher Education Commission
(MHEC), is an advocate for transforming
the new path of the state’s institutions of
higher education, working with them to be
more innovative and more creative, as he
observes what is happening in the wake of
COVID-19.
“COVID 19 has forced educational institutions into distance learning,” says Fielder,
“whether they wanted to go there or not,
and then rising to the occasion. Maryland
is blessed with its diversity of educational
options. The pandemic has brought about
even more variety than I’ve ever seen, more
connectivity than I’ve ever seen in my years
in higher education. They have risen to the
challenge, and it’s been impressive to see how
schools are working together during this
time of upheaval.”
Fielder is in awe of the originality that’s
occurred since the pandemic forced people
to stay home and rocked the foundations of
bricks and mortar schools and businesses
in the ways they function. “The education
of the future,” he prognosticates, “will have
to be more nimble, no longer able to rely
on what worked in the past. Critical thinking, analytical and communication skills are
needed more than ever, especially as we
depend on new ways to interact. The higher
Ask Margit, continued on page 4
adds career
direction to your
college degree
Imagine your future at stevenson.edu
