With phase two of the University of Wyoming’s phased return plan happening, freshman and other first year students are attending their first year seminar (FYS) courses in person.
“The first-year seminar coordinator encouraged (all FYS teachers) to be in person, because that is the nature of a seminar. Some instructors elected to just go via Zoom for the whole semester. I did not,” said ACES advisor and FYS Instructor Ben Herdt.
Herdt currently teaches an FYS called the “new geography of jobs” and is one of the first instructors navigating a COVID-restricted classroom.
When referring to the impact of online instruction on FYS courses, Herdt said, “It has changed it significantly.”
“Honestly, it’s better than Zoom,” said Herdt.
In normal circumstances, things would be much different for Herdt as he teaches students about the economic systems of various cities as well as an in-depth look into the Wyoming economy as well.
“A class like mine would be scheduled to meet in a room like in the basement of the Business Building. We are now in a giant lecture hall where general psychology is usually taught. And we are parsed out around the room so it’s not a great room for conversation,” Herdt said. But the changes are not all bad. “The good thing is we are still able to break out into like breakout groups and have little conversations then come back as a whole,” Herdt said.
Herdt is not the only instructor facing challenges in terms of teaching around COVID-19 restrictions. Maggie Bourque teaches an FYS called “Thinking Like a Mountain” that details environmental and natural problems from multiple perspectives.
“The biggest change is that all our in-person class sessions are outdoors. This course always has some field trips, field-based learning opportunities, and lots of active learning, sometimes outdoors, but in the past, we have not typically had every in-person class session outdoors,” Bourque said.
“I’m working hard to adjust planned activities and adapt them to new environments- whether that be outside, via Zoom or asynchronously in WyoCourses,” Bourque said.
When asked about the decision to bring first year seminars back to campus before the others, Herdt said, “everybody wanted to be a part of Phase 2, but it was very clean when you consider that only one type of student is going to be taking the first-year seminar. That was a big push over the summer when they were looking at what Fall was going to look like, they wanted to prioritize first-year students as well as seniors.”
“I think it was a combination of wanting to prioritize in person teaching for first-year students to get them kind of acclimated and on boarded onto campus as well as it being limited by the number of tests they had.”
Bourque is thankful that her students are open to the changes made to their FYS classes.
“The first semester of college is a huge transition no matter the state of the world, and I am really grateful to have such a wonderful group of freshmen who are open to the new challenges of outdoor and hybrid learning, too,” Bourque said.
