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News
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 — 5
Students and faculty work to adapt to hybrid courses
With 22 percent of LSA
classes being taught in the
hybrid or in-person format, the
disconnect between students
in the classroom and students
on Zoom coupled with the
technological learning curve
has
proved
challenging
for
hybrid courses.
LSA
sophomore
Michelle
Ascrizzi is enrolled in a hybrid
Honors
first-year
writing
course, which provides students
the option to attend lectures
either in person or online,
with discussions taking place
entirely online. Despite living
in an apartment in Ann Arbor,
Ascrizzi has opted to “Zoom”
into lecture every Tuesday and
Thursday morning.
“For now I’ve just been
attending entirely online, my
reason being I traveled to get
here so with staying in a hotel
and moving in and everything,
I wanted to lie low for the first
two weeks to make sure I didn’t
have any symptoms that I could
pass on to anyone,” Ascrizzi
said. “Also with everything
going on, I felt really nervous,
personally, about going to an
in-person class right now so I
decided I’d rather go online and
see how the first two weeks of
classes went.”
In-person students don’t use
microphones in Ascrizzi’s class,
which has created a lapse in
communication between virtual
students and in-person students.
“The hardest thing is that
for
classes
that
are
really
discussion-based,
you
can’t
hear what the people in the
classroom are saying usually,
and that can be helped by if the
professor repeats back what
they said,” Ascrizzi said. “I
feel engaged when people on
Zoom are talking but then when
people in the room are talking,
it’s more difficult to follow the
discussion.”
In an email to The Daily,
Faith
Sparr,
communication
and
media
lecturer
at
the
University of Michigan, said she
was advised to pass a handheld
microphone
from
student
to student in order to allow
students on Zoom to hear those
attending class in person.
“I
declined
that
solution
and luckily my room is now
equipped with an overhead mic
system, but I know of one other
hybrid lecturer that is still using
the handheld mic as a solution,”
Sparr wrote. “I attended several
training sessions to get ready for
the term that were technology-
based,
not
health
protocol-
based. Health protocol was
never really emphasized to me
as an in-person/hybrid lecturer
and I am still surprised by that.”
LSA lecturer Anne Manuel
is currently teaching Political
Science 495 in a similar hybrid
format
as
Ascrizzi’s
class.
Manuel said she prepared for
the class by playing around with
the technology she’d been using
before classes began.
“First, I did a training with
a couple other instructors that
took about an hour and then I
was able to get into the room,
Angell G115, to practice on my
own,” Manuel said. “It’s one
of those things where it’s both
the time to learn the software
and the repetition required to
adapt.”
Along
with
navigating
technology,
Manuel
believes
equally
dividing
attention
between virtual and in-person
students
is
another
new
challenge.
“When you’re in a room
where you have some students
in the room and some students at
home, it’s interesting to attend
to the people in the room and
attend to the people on Zoom,”
Manuel said. “The other tricky
thing about teaching now is
that there’s a part of your brain
that is running the technology
and a part of your brain that’s
thinking of the content while
making sure (I) attend to both
groups of students so it can be
hard to keep everything going.”
LSA instructors may be able to
switch to a fully remote format
if the hybrid format becomes
too challenging, according to
Manuel.
“In political science in LSA,
my
understanding
is
that
we have a lot of control over
whether we’re teaching hybrid
and remote and we have the
option to switch to remote
teaching if needed, as long as we
notify our department,” Manuel
said.
Manuel thinks one way to
possibly ease the disconnect in
hybrid classes could be cameras
offering a different view of the
classroom and students.
“Right now, there’s just a
camera in the room that goes
from the back of the room to
the front towards the stage,
so another thing you could
have is a camera going in the
other direction pointed on the
students so that people on Zoom
can see the students in the room
and
when
they’re
talking,”
Manuel said.
Business lecturer Amy Angell
is teaching two sections of the
course Marketing 313, both
in the hybrid format. Each
classroom she uses has certain
limitations on the number of
students allowed — a little more
than one-third of her students
must attend through Zoom —
however, she offers flexibility
for those who usually attend
in-person.
Angell has experience with
teaching hybrid courses and is
comfortable teaching in this
format this semester, noting
great
cooperation
between
the University and students in
following safety measures.
“I’ve taught hybrid before at
a different institution so I knew
right away it was going to be
challenging as it is oftentimes
double the work,” she said. “I
will say that there have been
great
efforts
with
training
and enhancing the classrooms
with microphones and a large
monitor to see our remote
students and there’s been great
communication by Ross and
(the University) so I’m never
fearful about getting COVID or
anything like that.”
According
to
Angell,
the
biggest challenge for her is
creating
relationships
with
her students and letting go of
aspects of her usual teaching
style.
“(It can get) hot to teach in
a mask and it’s confining to
not be able to move around
the classroom like I usually
do to create that personability
with
my
students,”
Angell
said. “It’s hard maintaining
equity between my hybrid and
remote students and it’s hard
for me to get to know my hybrid
students because when they
come in person they’re wearing
a mask but when they’re online
they’re not wearing a mask
... it’s definitely a disjointed
community.”
CELENE PHILIP
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
Minutes into her ultrasound
appointment in February of
2019, Alyson Irwin, who was 20
weeks pregnant at the time, and
her husband Phil Irwin saw the
technician turn off the screen
and leave the room to get their
physician.
“We knew something was
going on right away,” Alyson said.
“We had to sit there and wait and
try to figure out what was going
on. It felt pretty tense.”
The physician arrived and
broke the news to the Irwins.
“They were pretty blunt about
it and told us, ‘You’re pregnant
with conjoined twins. I’m really,
really sorry, but you’re going to
have to decide what you’re going
to do,’” Alyson said. “We felt
pretty devastated. It’s just not
something you would expect at
all.”
One day later, the couple met
with Dr. George Mychaliska,
professor of pediatric surgery
and obstetrics and gynecology.
Mychaliska imaged the twins
and
counseled
the
couple
through the process. Last month,
the twins underwent the first
known separation surgery at
Michigan Medicine and in the
state of Michigan.
“I counseled them back in the
day when their babies were still
fetuses,” Mychaliska said. “At
that time, we had sophisticated
imaging, including ultrasound,
fetal MRI and fetal echo, which
gave us a lot of anatomical
information
and
we
were
hopeful a separation surgery
would be possible.”
Alyson and Phil continued
to see Mychaliska and his team
throughout the pregnancy. The
twins, Sarabeth and Amelia,
were born on June 11, 2019. Born
prematurely, the twins spent
three months in the neonatal
intensive care unit.
“It was kind of surreal,”
Alyson said. “We knew the birth
would take a while, and I would
be stuck away from the girls for
a while. But I was eventually able
to hold the girls after a couple of
hours, and it was very surreal to
hold them.”
Sarabeth and Amelia were
born conjoined from their chest
to belly. Mychaliska noted both
girls had separate hearts, lungs
and
gastrointestinal
tracts,
making them good candidates
for separation surgery. Though
their livers were fused together,
he said the team knew they could
separate the organ.
While the Irwins adjusted
to a new life, they also began
working with their care team to
plan for the separation surgery.
“We were always on the
same page. Given the specifics
of conjoined twins, it’s just not
very positive-looking,” Phil said.
“If the girls were to make it and
have any chance at all, it would
be if they were separated. That
was both of our mindsets from
the beginning. We wanted to
give them a life where they could
live their best life independently
from each other.”
Mychaliska led the surgical
team, which consisted of more
than two dozen specialists.
“I
think
it’s
really
an
example of the importance of
collaboration, because there’s
no single physician who has the
expertise in all of these areas,”
Mychaliska said. “We all put our
heads together and innovated
solutions, and if we weren’t able
to work as a team, we wouldn’t
have been able to do this. I’m
convinced of that.”
Mychaliska emphasized that
the Irwin twins are extremely
rare. He said about one in
100,000 to 200,000 pregnancies
involve
conjoined
twins.
Mychaliska said many conjoined
twins aren’t able to survive.
After being closed for six
months due to the COVID-
19 pandemic, the University
of
Michigan
Department
of Recreational Sports will
reopen
campus
recreation
facilities this coming Monday,
Sept. 28.
The reopening comes after
Gov.
Gretchen
Whitmer
announced on Sept. 3 that
gyms across the state would
be allowed to resume business
as part of the state’s reopening
plan.
“A
number
of
changes
have been made to ensure
the
safety
and
cleanliness
of the recreation spaces,” a
University
Record
release
reads.
“Students
and
Recreational Sports members
will be required to make
reservations to work out and
to swim, face coverings will
be required while working out,
and facilities will be operating
at decreased capacities and
hours to allow for increased
cleaning during the day.”
According
to
the
announcement, other changes
include
plexiglass
barriers
at the front desks, increased
disposable
wipe
and
hand
sanitizer locations, increased
staffing
for
cleaning,
gym
equipment distanced at least 10
feet apart, personal protective
equipment and required health
screenings for all Rec Sports
employees.
Despite
the
facilities
reopening,
certain
services
will remain closed off to
students, including use of all
courts including basketball,
racquetball,
badminton,
volleyball
and
squash,
as
well as indoor rentals and
recreational programming.
The
announcement
also
made note of a new Rec
Sports application that will
“allow for contactless entry
to the facilities, make facility
and pool reservations, find
building hours and more.”
The app is currently available
for download in the Apple
App Store for iPhone and the
Google Play Store.
Director
of
Recreational
Sports Mike Widen said that
although the gyms will look
and work different than they
did before, he’s excited for
them to open back up.
“After being closed for over
six months, we are excited to be
able to reopen the Recreational
Sports facilities and serve the
health and wellbeing needs of
our students and our members,”
Widen said. “The experience
will look a little different
than it did previously. But we
believe we’ve established a
number of new protocols that
will keep our guests and our
employees safe. We’ve started
by reducing capacities at each
facility and requiring each
guest to make a reservation for
their workout on our new U-M
Recreational Sports app. These
steps will help us limit the
total number of people in each
facility.”
Daily
News
Editors
Ben
Rosenfeld and Liat Weinstein
can be reached at bbrosenf@
umich.edu and weinsl@umich.
edu.
After months of disuse, recreational
sports facilities reopen on Monday
U-M facilities resume operations on Sept. 28 following Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer’s order loosening restrictions on athletics earlier in the month
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The University of MIchigan’s recreational sports buildings reopened Monday, following a plan announced by Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Conjoined twins
undergo surgery
at medical center
Team of doctors at Michigan Medicine
successfully separates two children
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
LIAT WEINSTEIN &
BEN ROSENFELD
Daily News Editors
‘It’s definitely a disjointed community’: Transition to digital learning requires flexibility, patience amid pandemic
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Students attend their Zoom class from the Diag during the first week of the semester.
MICHAL RUPRECHT
Daily Staff Reporter