2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 137
For better or for worse, most LSU students are no longer
attending classes from the comfort of their homes.
While some are glad to be back to in-person classes,
others grew accustomed to hybrid courses and watching
lectures on their own time and now even prefer them.
Most classes on LSU’s campus have returned to inperson learning, with students wearing masks and installing
HEPA filters.
For some students or faculty, this is not enough
to comfortably return to campus. Some still prefer
the convenience of remote learning. Others, like
communications professor Ginger Guttner, enjoy being
back face to face.
“I think if it’s a class that’s lecture based, going hybrid
is probably not going to be a problem,” Guttner said. “I’m
someone who likes to run around campus, so I feel bad for
the people on zoom. And my personal teaching style just
does not work over zoom. All that being said, if someone
is more comfortable doing it completely hybrid, I am
completely fine with that.”
Some professors that have larger class sizes have
creatively adapted how they operate their classes.
Business professor Douglas Weimer has a class with 100
students in it. Half of his students come to class in person
Tuesday, and the other half attend in person on Thursday.
On the days the students do not have his class in person,
they attend online via zoom.
Online learning is not an option for some classes, as
some professors have found that it allows students to
take advantage of the attendance policies. For example,
communications professor Lyman Hunt no longer allows
his students to attend class via zoom unless the excuse is
COVID-related.
“I found streaming/recording lectures to be an
attendance killer,” Hunt said. “Once folks realized that
everything was available online, class attendance dropped
to about 25% of the roster.”
Weimer said in-person attendance often depends on the
class size.
“In smaller classes, my experience is that more students
attend in-person class versus attending with Zoom, even
when they can pick the option,” Weimer said. “In the larger
classes, the numbers are about equal when they get to pick.”
Pre-recorded lectures may be around for good, even with
the return to in-person learning. Many professors who don’t
make attendance mandatory are still uploading their class
recordings to Moodle, a relatively rare practice prior to the
pandemic.
Regardless, many students are glad to be back on campus
and go to class in person regardless of the option to attend
remotely or watch lectures on their own time.
Only one of the sophomore David Wadle’s five classes
make class attendance mandatory. It’s also his only online
class.
Wadle, like most students, said that he prefers in-person
classes because it forces him to be more engaged in the class
and helps him focus. No longer surrounded by distractions
in his room and without the ability to turn his camera
off, Wadle is glad to get the traditional college experience
finally.
“Having now seen both LSU online and LSU in person,
I can say without a doubt that I am thankful to finally be
getting the full, in-person, college experience,” Wadle said.
Photos by Francis Dinh
137