Social distancing requirements 

and 
remote 
learning 
have 

substantially 
altered 
previous 

conceptions 
concerning 
how 

education can be accessed by 
students, facilitated by faculty 
and applied beyond the classroom. 
From primary school teachers to 
the deans of graduate programs, 
educators and administrators have 
learned a lesson or two themselves 
about 
adapting 
education 

methodology to best meet the 
needs of their students.

The 
Michigan 
Daily 
spoke 

with teaching faculty from the 
University of Michigan’s various 
schools and colleges about the 
past months of virtual and hybrid 
learning and what they are taking 
away from it all going forward. 

As COVID-19 cases among the 

campus community increased in 
the late fall and into the winter 
term, 
in-person 
learning 
was 

rarely a viable option. However, 
some 
professors 
had 
the 

opportunity to experiment with a 
hybrid classroom in the fall. In this 
format, professors simultaneously 
teach students online and in 
person. Typically, small cohorts 
of students rotate in and out of the 
physical classroom during certain 
days or times to reduce class sizes, 
while the remainder of the class 
attends virtually.

Dennis Oswald, an accounting 

lecturer and visiting assistant 
professor, 
adopted 
a 
hybrid 

teaching style at the start of the 
year. Although hybrid teaching can 
be difficult in practice, Oswald said 
for him, the benefits outweighed 

the 
drawbacks. 
He 
enjoyed 

delivering lectures in person to 
students in a classroom setting.

“I was still teaching in person, 

I was still in a classroom,” Oswald 
said. “I didn’t make a lot of changes 
in terms of the way in which my 
material 
was 
being 
delivered 

because I was still teaching it, just 
I was teaching to a camera (too).”

While Oswald did not have 

to make drastic changes to his 
teaching style, he admits the 
sudden shift to hybrid teaching 
was not ideal.

“I’ve been teaching for 20 

years,”Oswald said. “This is the 
first time I’ve ever had to do 
hybrid, so I didn’t have the skills of 
20 years of hybrid teaching behind 
me.”

The majority of professors at 

the University taught completely 
remote with either synchronous 
live instruction or asynchronous 
pre-recorded activities—or in some 
cases, a mix of both. 

Mary Gell, a lecturer in the 

German department, said she 
switched to remote learning as 
soon as the University sent students 
home last March and has not 
physically taught in the classroom 
since then. She said the transition 
to virtually teaching a foreign 
language was stressful because she 
had to quickly reevaluate how to 
present several aspects of her usual 
curriculum.

“There’s so much to think 

about,” Gell said. “You have to 
rethink your whole course. That’s 
what can be so overwhelming, just 
thinking, ‘how do I have this make 
the most sense for this (online) 
format.’”

2

Thursday, May 13, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

What the pandemic has taught 
U-M faculty about virtual learning

Former Ann Arbor coffee shop 

Espresso Royale and boba shop Bubble 
Island both closed in April 2020 due 
to financial constraints caused by 
the COVID-19 pandemic. David Lin, 
former owner of both of these Ann 
Arbor staples, has since dedicated his 
time to assisting other small businesses 
in the endless fight to remain open and 
continue to generate revenue amid 
changing COVID-19 restrictions. Lin’s 
fundraiser, the COVID Rescue Fund, 
holds the goal of helping to bring back 
100 small businesses across the United 
States through community donations. 

On the fund’s website, visitors are 

able to vote for a small business they 
believe deserves financial assistance. 
Based on the amount of votes they 
receive and their current financial 
situations, businesses can be granted 
up to $100,000 to make up the revenue 
they have lost in the last 14 months. 
These grants are awarded monthly 
based on a variety of eligibility 
requirements, such as having fewer 
than three locations in 2019. 

From his own experiences with 

Bubble Island and Espresso Royale, Lin 
said he has a great deal of empathy for 
similarly struggling business owners. 
Lin said he knows first hand that 
entrepreneurs who have dedicated 
their lives to their establishments can 
be left empty-handed and emotionally 
distraught. 

“Most of these people have been hit 

so hard financially that they don’t have 
resources to go start a new business, 
and their credit might be so destroyed 
that no one will loan the money,” Lin 

said. “So the only outcome for most of 
these people is to go work minimum-
wage jobs, and it’s just a huge mismatch 
of what their talents are, and I think 
that’s a huge tragedy.”

Businesses across the country, from 

dance studios to coffee shops, have 
applied for the potentially life-altering 
grant Lin is offering. Lin highlighted a 
Tae Kwon Do instructor from Texas 
who is on the brink of permanent 
closure of his studio. 

“(The 
instructor) 
has 
trained 

Olympians, he has trained U.S. 
national team members, his son was 
one of the coaches of the U.S. national 
team,” Lin said. “He’s been doing this 
his whole life, and his dojo is about to 
go out of business. We need to help 
people like that, who are excellent at 
what they do, get back to work so they 
can be productive and help society.”

One of the fund’s current featured 

applicants is Ann Arbor’s very own 
aUM Yoga, which formerly had studios 
on North University Avenue and South 
University Avenue. The owner, Jessie 
Lipkowitz, is a University of Michigan 
alum who is deeply invested in the 
Ann Arbor community. Lipkowitz 
said she hopes to receive a grant from 
the COVID Rescue Fund in order 
to continue to provide a space for 
improving health and wellness in Ann 
Arbor.

“I care wholeheartedly about the 

demographics that I work with and the 
communities that I serve,” Lipkowitz 
said. “I do a lot of community work 
through the yoga studio, and I hope 
that I’m given an opportunity so that I 
can continue the mission statement of 
this business.”

Former Espresso Royale owner 
establishes ‘COVID Rescue Fund’ 
for struggling small businesses

MAANASA BOMMINENI

Daily Staff Reporter

EMILY BLUMBERG

Daily Staff Reporter

420 Maynard St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327

www.michigandaily.com

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday 

through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students 

at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free 

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Read more at michigandaily.com

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MICHAEL BAGAZINSKI/Daily

Faculty have had to adapt to new teaching methods. 

JARETT ORR/Daily

David Lin hopes to bring back 100 small businesses. 

