Resumen de Community Matters: Student–Instructor Relationships Foster Student Motivation and Engagement in an Emergency Remote Teaching Environment
Sheryl L. Gares, James Kariuki, B. P. Rempel
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted face-to-face instruction in educational institutions all over the world. As instructors we had to scramble to completely change courses to emergency remote delivery, sometimes with only a few days’ notice. Herein, we present reflections on the successes and challenges we encountered following the sudden and unexpected transition to remote delivery. We also address ways that we managed the obstacles faced, from overcoming technological issues posed by remote delivery to adaptation of laboratory content for emergency remote delivery. In addition, we discuss successful strategies for assessment of student learning and student engagement in the online environment. Overall, we found that students’ motivation was high, as indicated by online class attendance and engagement with course activities. We believe that the existing strong student–instructor relationships at our small liberal arts and sciences campus contributed to the unexpectedly high level of student engagement.
