The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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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