Omar E. Zapata | THE RIDER
With spring classes transitioning online due to COVID-19, UTRGV professors and students provided details on how they dealt with the changes.
Murad Moqbel, director of the Master of Science in Business Analytics program, taught an in-person class and said it was a simple transition and he took it in a positive way.
“At first it was in person which was fun, you know, you get students to work on extra exercises, extra practice in class,” he said.
Moqbel has been teaching online classes for the past seven years and didn’t have any technological problems due to his past experience.
He said he provided students with videos that explained and covered that week’s materials and they would do weekly assignments.
“One thing I miss the most is the personal interaction with the students,” Moqbel said.
Since the transition, he has substituted in-person interaction with students with virtual office hours on Zoom.
Crystal Ballin, a business management senior, said she thinks providing more Zoom classes and videos would be helpful to students who need to hear the professor to get information rather than just putting the material online.
“[In the spring] I was struggling in my statistics class, where that class is more hands on … [my professor’s] lectures were really helpful so when we transitioned, he wasn’t doing Zoom… I couldn’t grasp all the material online,” Ballin said.
Her past experience taking online classes made her well versed in Zoom and online aspects.
“I’ve taken online classes before, but I choose them wisely,” Ballin said. “I know I need to take certain classes on campus and some online.”
With all of her fall classes switching to online, Ballin said she hopes the classes she was expecting to take in person offer Zoom sessions and videos.
Kristine Wirts, an associate professor of history, said she likes teaching online due to the flexibility.
“I think Online teaching is just as rigorous as in class, it focuses on different skill sets,” Wirts said. “I try to teach it towards different skill sets, like I do a lot of reading and writing in mine so instead of just lecturing.”
Having taught online classes before and knowing how to use the certain technologies that come with it, she said she felt comfortable with how her classes went in the summer.
“I think that you can get just as good as an education with online [classes], as you do face-to-face,” Wirts said.
Anael Negrete, a history junior, said it felt like it was a bit easier due to having more time and flexibility to do class work.
“I feel like it helped me balance my time with the classes,” she said. “While going to school, I kind of had that, but I was also working so I wasn’t really doing that great.”
Negrete said she did have difficulties learning the material in her online classes.
“One of my professors is older and doesn’t know technology that well so [the class] really struggled with that,” she said.
Negrete said her class made a group chat and together would discuss how they didn’t get a certain lesson and would help each other out.
Wirts said it would be a good idea to assign a mentor to faculty who are unfamiliar with the technology.
“I’m very familiar with the technology, so I wouldn’t mind mentoring other faculty,” she said.
Wirts said faculty were offered opportunities by UTRGV to seek training for online classes.
Moqbel said co-teaching would be a good idea.
“Faculty who are not familiar with teaching online … can co-teach with another faculty who is tech savvy,” he said.
Moqbel also said faculty should collaborate and cooperate with the different resources and materials they use.
With both of these professors not having any major problems these past two semesters, both expect everything to run smoothly for their online classes but are aware that some students struggle having access to computers or the internet.
“This is a reality in the [Rio Grande Valley],” Moqbel said. “Some people might not have access to the internet or computers.”
Wirts said providing computers and greater access to online facilities, like the internet, is something that would help the students.
Both Wirts and Moqbel will teach all online classes this coming fall semester.
Aaliyah Garza/The Rider Photo
Donna Ceglar, director of IT Support Service, said they have experienced a high call volume since the transition to online.
“The interest for Zoom has definitely increased,” Ceglar said
She said the IT Service Desk is now available through call or chat 24/7.
“We have staff that is working with us to provide after hours support,” Ceglar said.
The IT department also recently rolled out an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot named Wally.
Wally is meant to answer the most routine questions that UTRGV faculty or students have.
“[Wally is] still learning,” Ceglar said. “As he goes he will pick up more knowledge.”
She said she is confident that the fall semester will go well, as it went relatively well in the summer.
