By Samuel Hebestreit
Microsoft Teams played a crucial role in Bellarmine daily classroom lives during the pandemic but as classes have returned to traditional in-person delivery, the software is being used less.
Some students liked using Teams, such as Bellarmine junior Nick Ely who said, “It’s been of very easy access.”
Some faculty, including Angela Miller, were not big fans. “I think it’s better as a tool to use with the classroom, as opposed to a sole platform for teaching,” she said.
The goal for using Microsoft Teams is to create the best teaching and learning environment possible in a remote situation. A classroom becomes anywhere that has an internet connection.
“The biggest thing for me using Microsoft Teams is that I had to teach myself to be comfortable in my room or in a kitchen, or you know, outside on a bodega somewhere to get me in that mindset of it’s class time,” Bellarmine senior Daniel Hutchins said.
For instructors, such as Miller, Teams had some downsides. “When teaching online, I found myself going over points more than I needed to because I didn’t have that visual cue. It took a lot of extra time outside of class because I would check in with students, more often one-on-one, outside of class because I had to make up for what was lost.” Miller said.
Hutchins said the biggest advantage to Teams was he did not have to go to class. “How most lectures are set up, like traditional PowerPoint lectures, it’s really not that much different when you think about it,” he said. “When you’re sitting in your room getting all that information, it can kind of even be easier.”
Miller said balancing her attention between online students and in-person students was the biggest challenge. “If you’re paying attention to the students and interacting with the students online, you lose the students in class,” she said. “As soon as you start to interact and really work with the students in class, you lose the students online. Being able to bounce between those two realms easily is challenging.”
Allowing students to continue to attend class by using Microsoft Teams would be very beneficial for students like Ely. “I have a very weird underlying urinary condition that essentially causes uncontrollable spasms that you just don’t want to deal with,” he said. “It either hurts or is uncomfortable.”
Microsoft Teams is still available in some classrooms. Miller said, “If somebody gets Covid or has to quarantine for whatever reason, then I do the option of low-flex.”
“If students let me know ahead of time, I will turn on the class just so they can observe me and the lesson plan. But I don’t formally interact with them. I don’t do breakout groups.”
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