Yes, I am BACK!!! It is the first week of classes in January 2022 and I have returned to my COURSE HAPPENINGS Blog! It has been almost 2 YEARS since my last entry in my Course Happenings Blog. Talk about a devastating impact that COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected our daily lives completely but it has also tremendously changed how our classes are taught!
My last entry was in 2020 and I was talking about my Race and Ethnic Relations class. I was so excited to get my students together in class and talking within their groups on a wide array of issues associated with race and ethnic relations. Then, in the early portion of the semester, COVID-19 hit the university and we could no longer meet in our lecture room. I therefore had to place all of our lectures and assignments completely online. For me, it was not a major adjustment simply because I have been teaching online classes here at ECU since 2008 yet for my students, it was a bigger adjustment. Fortunately, that semester (Spring 2020), my students made the necessary adjustments and they actually did an outstanding job by the end of the semester! I was very delighted that they worked through the challenges of staying connected with our issues and ended up completing excellent end-of-the-semester projects.
So here are the classes that I taught since Spring 2020:
- MPH 6005 African American Health – Summer 2020
- MPH 6009 Capstone Experience in Ethnic Health & Health Disparities – Summer 2020
- MPH 6007 Global Public Health – Fall 2020
- ANTH 2200 Cultural Anthropology – Fall 2020
- MPH 6008 Ethnic Health & Health Disparities – Spring 2021
- ANTH 2250 Race and Ethnic Relations – Spring 2021
- ANTH 3252 Medical Anthropology – Spring 2021
- MPH 6005 African American Health – Summer 2021
- MPH 6009 Capstone Experience in Ethnic Health & Health Disparities – Summer 2021
- MPH 6007 Global Public Health – Fall 2021
- ANTH 2250 Race and Ethnic Relations – Fall 2021
Now for this SPRING 2022 semester, I am teaching the following courses (all online)
- ANTH 2250 Race and Ethnic Relations – Spring 2022
- ANTH 3252 Medical Anthropology – Spring 2022
- MPH 6008 Ethnic Health & Health Disparities – Spring 2022
Interestingly, now that all of my classes are online I am having actually more fun teaching in a different way. Of course, I miss actually interacting with my students and hearing their responses in the lecture hall. You cannot duplicate that experience! Yet the adjustments and adaptation to completely online has allowed many of my students to share MORE information on a variety of issues than if we were in the lecture hall. In fact, I have incorporated a number of new online tools and strategies to make each class MORE INTERACTIVE! I can tell that my students really like these new tools and strategies because it is unexpected and it catches them by surprise. Therefore, I welcome another semester of classes with my students (undergraduate and graduate) and look forward to their discussion board comments, interactions with their colleagues through discussion boards, and their final projects and solutions!!