The Academic Front Line

Front line is a term used to describe the position closest to an area of conflict. Conflict was certainly heading towards us in early March when the coronavirus was spreading across the nation. Academic deans assembled in formation and agreed that virtual delivery of didactic coursework was necessary to keep faculty and students safe, while sustaining our educational missions. At face value, it might not seem like a difficult task to transition didactic or pre-clinical courses from a traditional setting to a virtual platform. Online schooling has been around for decades and the technology we use should already have capability, right? Actually, there’s a bit more to it than that. On March 13th, the university announced efforts to execute a plan that would initiate remote instruction for all students by March 16th. Academic leadership rapidly began an in-depth evaluation of program coursework. In the School of Dentistry, Adriana Segura, D.D.S., M.S., gathered her team, which included key personnel, Dana English, Ed.D., M.S., RDH, and Mr. Jason Sandlin. Together, with valuable input from course directors, they studied the course syllabi, schedules, and technology expansion opportunities to make sure students would be able to hit the ground running right after spring break. “We have to think out of the box”, says Dr. Segura, associate dean for academics, faculty and student affairs. “This pandemic has pushed faculty to use technology that they were not previously familiar with.” Dr. Segura, Dr. English, assistant dean for educational and faculty development, and Jason, distributed education coordinator, worked with faculty members to help them adapt and innovate their courses before moving them online. “Change is always difficult – the first reaction by some was to make the recordings from last year available, but our goal was to keep students as engaged as possible during this time. We decided to require faculty to present their lectures synchronous in conferences at the same time they were regularly scheduled,” said Dr. English. “In the beginning, it was very uncomfortable for faculty to present to a monitor, but after a couple of sessions our faculty our blooming!” Dental faculty are utilizing new functionality, familiarizing themselves with chat and polling features to address students’ questions and concerns in real time. Assigning case studies for student groups has been successful in keeping students in contact and requires the use of both their basic science and clinical knowledge during a time they are prohibited from seeing patients or practicing in lab. The use of ExamID^tm and ExamMonitor^tm for remote testing has been vital since the exodus off campus. While students have been long acquainted with taking exams electronically in ExamSoft^tm, the integrity of testing, especially for high stakes exams, is questioned without a live proctor. Enter our subject matter expert, Jason Sandlin, who assisted students with acquiring a facial recognition image for testing and ran mock exams in an effort to find and fix problems before students took critical exams. Jason has also virtually sat in every exam the students have taken since going virtual; sitting at his station ready to assist students needing help. “The recent weeks have been challenging because I am a hands-on person and not having the ability to communicate face-to-face has been difficult. Trying to communicate through all sorts of platforms to troubleshoot, develop exams or quizzes is very challenging,” says Jason. “Between all of us, we have come up with some great ideas though,” he says, referring to Dr. Segura, Dr. English, Dr. Michaell Huber, Dr. Anne Jones, and Dr. Haley Nation. “My biggest problem solver has to be Dr. Huber; he has been my go-to for advice and guidance.” Due to the sheer scale of schools using online exams over the past month, vendors, such as ExamSoft^tm, have been overwhelmed and delayed in delivering important reports. The feature, ExamMonitor^tm, is an AI-driven remote proctor software that observes students through video and audio monitoring. Reports are to be delivered to exam administrators regarding any suspicious incidents during exams. With no guarantee of when reports might be sent, Dr. Segura, Dr. Stefanie Seitz, assistant dean for students, Robin Druckman, manager of academic programs, and Jason personally reviewed 105 student videos in one weekend to ensure exam integrity. “It’s been very challenging to convert practically overnight from live classroom and laboratory teaching to online instruction,” shares Dr. Karen Troendle, Thomas P. Nowlin, D.D.S. Professor in Operative Dentistry. “In fact, it would have been overwhelming if it hadn’t been for the incredible efforts of Dr. Segura, Dr. English, and Mr. Sandlin. They encouraged us to seek creative ways to keep our students engaged and learning while patiently putting up with our novice attempts at virtual meetings and presentations – they deserve a medal when this is all over.” Dr. Daniel Lavin, clinical assistant professor and course director, also praises the efforts the School of Dentistry’s academic front line. “Dr. Segura has been amazing in her efforts to ensure that both students and faculty are able to successfully employ our online resources to continue the educational process. She has been an inspiration to faculty in so many ways. Dr. English and Jason have been a source of tremendous support in ensuring that the live streaming process proceeds seamlessly. I know both of them monitor several presentations at the same time and are always immediately available to troubleshoot any issues. We would not be able to function in our new environment without them.” “I believe the individual who has been of utmost importance in this process is Mr. Jason Sandlin. Without his expertise and guidance, the faculty in HHD4 would be lost. He has been more than willing to assist us with our lecture presentations, exam construction, and troubleshooting of multiple issues…with his leadership, the faculty are more comfortable using this platform and have learned what does and what does not work,” said Dr. Anne Jones, professor of pathology. Dr. Lavin may speak for everyone when he adds, “Although we have been able to successfully present lectures online, I am hopeful we can get back to the lecture halls for live lectures. Online lectures will never completely replace the learning environment of live lectures.”