Annual Symposium Showcases Innovative Teaching and Learning Ideas

Faculty found new ways to build community, engage students, and check on students’ well-being during the pandemic, Reihman said. Many professors realized that traditional methods of teaching were secondary to having empathy for students as they navigated a new reality fraught with uncertainty.

Siva K. Sivakumar, the Arthur Tauck Chair and a professor of marketing, kicked off the first day of presentations with his talk, “Post-Pandemic Professor: A Personal Journey.”

“I’ve heard of universities being compared to battleships, being very difficult to change and taking a long time to change direction, but I think we have shown during the pandemic that we can change,” Sivakumar said. “My own approach is that if we don’t change, change will be forced upon us.”

Sivakumar said education isn’t just about bestowing knowledge upon students, but engaging with them and making them feel involved in the process. He adjusted how students use the chat function in Zoom when he asks a question.

“I don’t want people to just look at what other people are writing, so I tell them, ‘Don’t submit, just write, and I will give you a signal after 30 seconds, then you submit."

He encouraged his fellow professors to embrace small changes that will eventually add up, but most importantly, he encouraged them not to be scared to try new things with technology.

“Sometimes I tell my students, ‘I’m going to try this out. If it doesn’t work out I won’t do it next time.’ I tell them upfront,” he said. “Humility is obviously important, but I think ultimately so is good faith.”

Mary Newbegin and her colleague Teresa Cusumano, both language specialists with the International Center for Academic and Professional English (ICAPE), talked about the challenges of welcoming international students for the fall 2020 semester.

“The idea of just coming to college alone can be very daunting, let alone the insecurity about getting here and whether you’re going to have classes online, whether you’re going to start your college career online and things like that,” Newbegin said.

As a result, the center developed the “Virtual College Success Academy,” a three-credit online course in which high-intermediate to advanced students in English proficiency learn about university culture, develop their academic communication and study abroad skills, and engage virtually with Lehigh teachers, staff and students on campus.

The program is entering its third year, Newbegin said.

One of the students’ assignments was to make a “day in the life” video where they show different aspects of their lives, such as what they eat for breakfast or religious customs in their part of the world.

Many of the instructors who spoke during the symposium recognized the need to prioritize students’ well-being during the pandemic. Sometimes it was as simple as asking, “How are you doing?” at the start of class.

“I want to talk about this concept called social connection,” Haiyan Jia, an assistant professor in the department of journalism and communication said during her presentation, “Building True Connections: Pedagogical and Technological Strategies to Help Students Navigate Times of Crisis.”

Jia was teaching a senior seminar class in fall 2020 when she noticed some of her students were really struggling, not only academically, but physically and psychologically.

“I realized my students were just not ok…We were focusing so much on material, but not really showing kindness, understanding and the care aspect,” she said. “What I started to do was have ‘me time.’"

“The goal for the symposium is to recognize and promote educational experimentation and innovation more broadly across campus,” Reihman said. “My hope is that attendees hear one or two things that resonate with them, put those ideas into practice in their own classes, and come back next year to report on how it went.”

The pandemic has been a “magnifier” and an “accelerator,” he said. It accelerated the possibility of new pedagogies, technologies and new ways of understanding learning. It’s also magnified some of some of the challenges Lehigh faced in supporting faculty and students through those changes.

“The more we as a university can continue to do the things we learned to do well, the better I think everyone across campus will be,” Reihman said.

For more information on the symposium and to view recordings of the presentations, click here.