Teaching Through a Hurricane

Higher education has endured a variety of unanticipated disruptions over the past decade. But I'm not talking about transformative technologies or innovative teaching models. I'm referring to societal or cultural events that interfere with campus operations, such as political protests and labor strikes, or natural disasters, such as earthquakes, extreme weather events, landslides, or tsunamis.

On September 10, 2018, my class at Coastal Carolina University was wrapping up for the day when a few of my students gathered around a computer to watch a live stream of our governor, who was issuing a mandatory evacuation of our county. At the time, Hurricane Florence was a Category 4 storm looming off the coast and appeared to be headed right for us. Fortunately, its strength decreased significantly before making landfall, but the slow-moving storm dumped rain on our surrounding area for days, causing flooding that took weeks to recede. As a result, our campus was closed for nearly three weeks.

Faculty, staff, and students were just a few weeks into the academic year. We had all just started settling into our semester routines when we were suddenly displaced from our homes. Rather than being concerned about lesson plans, homework, and exams, we were concerned about the well-being of our friends, families, homes, and belongings. The unexpected emotional and physical upheaval we experienced was challenging for everyone. And while this was an extraordinary circumstance that I hope I will never have to work through again, the lessons I took away from the experience have changed my approach to teaching—hurricane or no hurricane.

Remembering Empathy

I like to think I'm an empathetic professor. The current generation of college students faces a number of new challenges—especially when it comes to the cost of education—and I try to keep these factors in mind when establishing expectations for my classes. Of course, after more than a decade of working in higher education, my familiarity with the ebb and flow of a typical semester enables me to operate on autopilot most days. So it's easy to forget what it's like for young adults who are facing the challenges of college for the first time.

Fall 2018 was anything but a typical semester. The hurricane disrupted my life, both personally and professionally. Professionally, it left me reeling for the remainder of the semester, and, if I'm being honest, the rest of the academic year. If I was struggling, I could only imagine how our first-year (especially first-generation) students must have felt. When the hurricane hit, they had only completed three weeks of classes and were just figuring out how to succeed as college students. On the other end of the academic spectrum, students who had been planning to graduate in December were left wondering if graduating "on time" would even be possible. The stress, anxiety, and distractions that abounded in the wake of the hurricane served as stark reminders for me to provide my students with the kind of patience, flexibility, and understanding they need and deserve, especially during the first weeks back after the hurricane-induced hiatus.

Embracing Online Learning

With campus temporarily shuttered, many students didn't have access to the technology and resources they needed to complete coursework. So, while faculty were encouraged to maintain communication with their students, a moratorium was placed on due dates and other required coursework while the institution was closed. Once everyone returned to campus, we were then left with the challenge of cramming three weeks of lost time into the fairly rigid confines of what was left of the semester. The university was able to creatively carve out a few make-up days from holidays and weekends, but this alternate schedule didn't necessarily jibe with the already-disrupted lives of faculty and students. As a result, many faculty—including myself—opted for moving contingent instruction online.

I currently teach graphic design in a studio-based environment with extended class times to allow for hands-on learning and instruction. While I'm no stranger to online education, abruptly converting a curriculum with face-to-face instruction in mind to an online format mid-semester presented an extra set of challenges. The best solution I found was to move group critiques to an online discussion forum, but I feared that the loss of face-to-face interaction would hinder the quality of student feedback.

I was pleasantly surprised that some aspects of the online critiques were better than what I'd recently experienced in the classroom. A bit of the magic of a large collaborative group critique was likely lost to the more individualized online format, but what was lost was certainly made up for through increased student participation. Also, I believe online critiques allowed students to be more contemplative and thoughtful with their feedback than they might be when they're put on the spot in a live critique. As a result, I've started mixing online group critiques into my courses as a way to diversify and expand the classroom experience.

Murphy's Law Runs the Classroom

I certainly hope this situation isn't one that I have to work through again, and I wouldn't wish it on any other faculty member. However, the experience has prepared me to face similar disruptions should they happen in the future and it has informed my day-to-day teaching. If the past couple of years are signs of things to come, climate-related natural disasters and social issues are likely to continue to cause major disruptions to academic calendars around the world. The optimist in me hates to advise anyone to plan for the worst, and the writer in me abhors speaking in clichés. That said, this experience has taught me that all of us can find creative ways to be better prepared for unlikely issues and events—and that we must expect the unexpected when preparing our classes.

Ryan Bitzegaio is an assistant professor of graphic design at Coastal Carolina University.