by Allison Mills, University Marketing and Communications
Through remote instruction, hybrid classes and adaptive lesson plans, Department of Chemistry instructors helped their students through the pandemic. None of them want to do it again — but the pandemic, and its challenges and silver linings, varied between instructors, students and classes.
Some profs learned they liked online lectures and want to keep them. Some dreaded hybrid class prep, with its inevitable tech issues and 600-plus separate containers needed to run a single lab experiment. They’re grateful for teaching assistants (TAs). Most are still weary. One plans to burn the face shield they wore during in-person lectures — Viking funeral pyre-style.