MARSHALL — Every teacher has their preferred method when it comes to delivering education to their students throughout the academic year. Whether it’s on the traditional chalk or dry-erase board to the more sleek technological way, educators around the country were forced to make a simultaneous — and uncertain — jump onto a new path when the coronavirus pandemic brought schools to a close in March.

For some, the switch to online learning was fairly effortless with only a few adjustments made. Others faced more cumbersome problems. Despite their level of expertise when it came to online learning, teachers as well as their students found themselves all in the same boat trying to navigate the choppy and uncertain waters of finishing the spring semester.

When the news first broke that the pandemic was going to affect schools and learning, institutions needed time to prepare and make the necessary adjustments. Southwest Minnesota State University extended its spring break by two weeks to help try and cushion the sudden blow of the pandemic on their academic calendar before restarting its classes on March 30.

Kate Borowske, an Instructional Design Librarian at SMSU, said it’s been a constant work in progress but the first step was getting their teachers informed.

“It’s been a work in progress. When we first heard about all of the information coming from different professional areas, I just shared it with our faculty because otherwise it becomes more confusing,” Borowske said. “We don’t have enough staff to reach every faculty member and not enough time, but the MNSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities) system was big in getting information to us and they offered a lot of training.”

Borowske helped teachers get familiar with applications such as Zoom and Desire To Learn (D2L) if they didn’t have prior knowledge of them.

“They had questions such as, ‘How do I do this?’ and it was really nice to refer faculty to webinars that were offered from MNSCU,” Borowske said. “Some have taught online before and some had hybrid classes where they have to bring in kids from other colleges and get them accustomed to their format.”

As the spring semester begins to wrap up, MNSCU Chancellor Devinder Malhotra said the response from institutions about making the transition to online learning has been phenomenal.

“The response has been simply amazing. Our faculty, staff, campus leadership, our presidents, it was all hands on deck and everybody came together with the single sole purpose of ‘What can we do to continue to provide exceptional education for our students’ and ‘What can we do to make sure our students continue on their career educational journey and finish the spring semester.’ Our bargaining units, our student associations, our campus faculty staff, our campus leadership, it was in the spirit of collaboration, cooperation and working all together. It is only because of that spirit of innovation and creativity and collaborative spirit that enabled us to move almost 20,000 courses to remote delivery within a span of only two weeks.”

For students, getting all of their schoolwork done in an online format was just as much of an adjustment. Oladiran “Ola” Abimbola, the state chair for Student United at SMSU, said it took some time for students to get used to the new way of learning, but added things have improved since the beginning.

“The transition was not seamless,” Abimbola said. “But it has improved over time, especially when it was aware that education was going to be suspended. We’re lucky and fortunate the MNSCU system has been working tirelessly and things have become a little more straightforward.”

As the weeks have progressed, Borowske said there have been some positive results from the new transition. One area was the efforts of different professors coming to the aid of fellow educators, whether they were in the same department or not, and taking the initiative towards learning the new systems.

“A lot of the professors have stepped up to the plate and got interested in learning,” Borowske said. “There’s been a lot of communication and the faculty has helped each other a lot and they deserve a lot of credit.”

Just as there were many signs of success in the transition to online learning, there were also several roadblocks endured, both by teachers and students. Borowske said without having that daily interaction with students, teachers were required to get plans thought out ahead of time. She added that teachers might be feeling pressure to create the perfect system for an online course right from the start, but that shouldn’t be the case.

“With online teaching they need to know what it is since there is no day-to-day contact with students and a lot of information has to be filled out ahead of time,” Borowske said. “The first challenge is they don’t have to build the perfect online course; the faculty is thinking about the summer and making a good online course. It is important to remind them that it is not about building the perfect online course; you start with the class you have and just continue to learn technology enough to be confident and still be able to have that interactive discussion with students.”

Another challenge is the battle with the digital divide. Malhotra said several students simply don’t have access to technology or limited access and campuses are having to remain open in order to provide for those who need it as a result.

“There is a digital divide and many students don’t have access to technology or Wifi so they have to come to campus to get that access and we have to provide that access in a safe manner,” Malhotra said.

While educators and institutions are wrapping up the final days of the semester and closing the door on an unprecedented academic year, the impact of learning and education in the immediate future will be significant.

Malhotra said currently 95% of courses are being delivered without face-to-face interaction while the remaining 5% are being completed with the necessary safety precautions in effect.

Malhotra added that while they are still in a “wait-and-see” period with how they can proceed, institutions such as SMSU are confident to welcome in new and returning students come August.

“The key message that we want to convey is there is still a lot we don’t know about what the future will bring and the information is still evolving,” Malhotra said. “But this much is certain; every one of our 30 colleges and seven universities in Minnesota State will be open and ready to welcome students in the fall and will adapt as necessary and safely serve them and continue to provide an extraordinary education.”