After over a year of living in the pandemic with all its restrictions and new lifestyle, and among the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Arkansas, the question still arises from many at the university – are we rushing back to normalcy too quickly?

Concerns vary from student to student and from teacher to teacher, ranging from problems such as the continuous spread of COVID-19, difficulties learning and teaching online and not wanting to return to physical classes due to the comfort of remote learning.

Learning Obstacles

As for many teachers at the university, the plan is to return to physical classrooms. However, this is a heavily conflicted issue among teachers and students as many have adapted to online teaching and learning or have not acclimated to it one bit.

For Assistant Professor of Public Relations Dr. Dylan McLemore, adapting to the online teaching environment has had plenty of ups and downs, but he is finding a way to teach in between them.

“In the fall, I had a large auditorium classroom,” he said, explaining his journey in navigating his instruction during the conditions of the pandemic. “Even though the class was small, we were able to spread everybody out…Some people came to classes. Some people chose to take it via Zoom. We just did synchronous class meetings that way.

In the spring, I didn’t have access to those large rooms…I taught entirely online. Still doing the synchronous, real-time meetings, but solely over zoom. I’ve tried a little bit of both.”

Despite the controversy and dislike of online learning from many people, McLemore found strengths in the area as the semesters carried on. However, one of the downfalls is the point of exhaustion that everyone reaches by the end of the semester.

“It was successful in the sense that we made it through. People completed the class. We still, I think, by large were able to achieve most of the objectives we were able to get out of the courses. We like to do a little more collaboration in my classes; that was difficult and in some cases, we didn’t get to do that. Otherwise, we made it, but by the end, people were exhausted. Students were tired of it. The professors were worn out as well. It took a lot more effort, a lot more resources to make those online classes happen.”

For some instructors, the online classroom is to be completely disposed of as they do not favor it. As for others, such as McLemore, aspects of it will remain, as they complement the course and benefit the students in various ways.

“UCA being a more teaching-minded university, to begin with, I think a lot of us are going to take away things that will help our teaching moving forward. For me, I think a couple of benefits that I saw was number one; we got some students back who had left just a few classes short of graduating and they were off and starting careers elsewhere in Arkansas and, in some cases, elsewhere around the country. They were able to come back and finish some classes, and they’re going to graduate now. That’s obviously a huge advantage of online learning. So we love that.

We also had students who have to take care of people at home. They have other responsibilities that make being able to just log in from a bedroom or a spare room more convenient. So those are certainly advantages.

For teachers, I started to think more about the ways that I was presenting information and, if there were different ways to present, maybe the same thing I’m trying to teach, but anyway you can show something in multiple ways, you have a better chance of getting that way that is going to click with each individual student. So I think online made that happen more. You had to think more about what you were uploading to BlackBoard or Google Classroom, or whatever service you were using. I had to think about when I would record videos, what I wanted to say in a brief amount of time. I think it made my teaching more concise. You know, you don’t ramble as much when people are going to have five or 10 minutes to look at a video, and you know they’re going to tune you out after that. So I think that’s good.”

Whether or not aspects of online platforms will continue in an instructor’s classroom is at each instructor’s discretion, but McLemore plans to take the best of both worlds when returning to classes in the fall.

“I think we do need the physical (classrooms) back in some form, and I still think that’s going to be the majority of our instruction, moving forward from when we get past this…” He also favored the idea of creating more hybrid classes for those who cannot commute to the campus or need to take a day away from the physical classroom.

Furthermore, in his instruction, he frequently features guest speakers that are not typically from the Central Arkansas area but located near the east or west coast. Therefore, online platforms provide more opportunities for his students to learn from people working in public relations, he says.

“We’ve done that in my classes, and that’s certainly not something that I plan to just discontinue. I want to keep that, regardless. Even if we are meeting physically just to say, ‘hey, we’re going to have a Zoom day, but it’s so that we can hear from someone practicing what we’re talking about in New York or L.A. I think that’s an advantage that we need to keep.”

As for the decision to return to physical classrooms on campus, McLemore said he thought it made sense for the time but has seen a change in coronavirus cases more recently that now conflicts with the decision.

“I think when we made the decision, it made sense to be back in a classroom with a normal reopening. That was the trajectory. Cases were very, very low, people were getting vaccinated at a steady rate, and then…in mid-to-late May, when we were supposed to be hitting that really safe benchmark, people just stopped getting vaccinated. There’s a whole lot of reasons to explore for that, but obviously, that has complicated things. Now we’ve got a lot more cases than we expected and we still have a lot fewer people vaccinated than we’ve expected. 

But also, the university’s hands are kind of tied in some of this. They’re not allowed to require vaccinations. They’re not allowed to even require masks. So I think what President Davis is trying to do is probably the smart move and really, the one he can legally make at this point is just really to encourage people to get vaccinated. That’s kind of been our approach as a state. Our government philosophy has been, ‘You want freedom. We trust you to do the right thing, so we’re not going to impose a government mandate on you. So do the right thing and take care of each other. We haven’t always done that, and that’s why we are where we are.”

Virus Spreading

Alongside the troubles of learning obstacles are the worries from the teachers and students regarding the spiking cases of coronavirus in Arkansas as we still find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic, with new variants of the virus spreading.

Released in a statement on July 13, President Houston Davis made clear the precautionary actions the university is taking to fight against the virus by giving a list of the actions:

1. Prioritize vaccine distribution and participation for UCA students and employees. This includes the continued development of vaccine education and communication materials, especially those geared toward returning and new students.
2. Continue to stress all health and hygiene best practices, including messaging that unvaccinated individuals should continue to wear face coverings. Signage throughout campus will be updated to reflect current operations, state regulations, and general health guidance. Additionally, the university is maintaining an inventory of personal protective equipment (PPE) for students, faculty, and staff desiring or requiring such through the coming academic year. Many individuals are continuing to wear masks (regardless of vaccination status), and we want to make sure that plenty are available to those that need them.
3. Continue a robust testing and tracing protocol including the continuance of the Testing & Tracing Consortium with Conway Regional Health System, Hendrix, and CBC. While a subgroup has continued to monitor and maintain statistics through June and July, the full consortium membership will begin meeting again the first week of August.
4. Assess and prepare to manage appropriate levels of quarantine and isolation housing. An inventory of 65 units has been continued throughout the summer with a high point of three units being used to date. Student Health, Housing & Residence Life, and Aramark Food Service are coordinating to determine the appropriate number of active units for August through October.
5. Assure that all academic courses and support functions have a contingency plan in case of change to operation (for a variety of reasons including pandemic, weather, disaster, etc.). The academic planning subgroup will continue to monitor instructional methods and support measures to ensure inclusive pedagogy and student success for all students, including but not limited to those students, faculty, and academic professional staff who may have to be in quarantine or isolation.

Although Davis declared that the university is taking steps to protect faculty and students, including encouraging vaccination across campus, UCA is still a public entity, and can’t require people to be vaccinated. Those on campus also have the right to not be questioned by anyone other than Student Health Center staff as to whether they have been vaccinated.

Concerns have been expressed by many due to this as it leaves ambiguity as to whether people will lie about being vaccinated or continue to spread the virus.

At the end of his statement, Davis left a note to all people of UCA, saying, “As a reminder, all full- and part-time UCA employees, family of employees, and all students may receive the COVID-19 vaccine through our UCA Student Health Clinic. The vaccines are free of charge and can be used for either the first or second Pfizer dose. Please call the Student Health Clinic at 501-450-3136 to schedule an appointment or receive additional information about the vaccine.”