By Rick Boychuk
Photos by Rémi Thériault
Melanie Adrian
How much knowledge can students absorb in an online class with all the distractions of home life bubbling in the background?
It’s difficult enough in a university setting to compete for their attention with texts, games and news streaming into their devices. Studying from home presents an even greater variety of interruptions (pets, phone calls, pesky siblings) and temptations (pie in the fridge, poker websites, pals next door).
University students are expected to take responsibility for their schedules and class work, but the pandemic is not life as normal. So the challenge for Carleton’s professors, who had to swiftly develop online versions of their classes over the past few months, is figuring out how to engage students in course material while we are all coping with isolation, economic uncertainty and the fear of contracting a highly transmissible disease.
Religion and human rights scholar Melanie Adrian decided to focus her efforts not on what interactive software to use but on how to create ah-ha moments online.
“How do we expand horizons on Zoom?” asks Adrian, who was appointed one of Carleton’s inaugural Chairs in Teaching Innovation in late 2019.
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 in Department of Law and Legal Studies, News
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