Breaking Boundaries through Collaborative Teaching
Digital learning took on a whole new meaning in the Strategic Design and Management BBA program at Parsons School of Design due to the restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because shift into full-virtual teaching happened so quickly, we seized upon the opportunities afforded by this disruption to prototype a model of collaborative teaching and learning that was designed to break down boundaries and limitations typically found in sectioned off large-sized classes. This model also shows that this can be done successfully at scale; we first tested this on a class of 30 students, and then again on a class of 120 students.
We embraced, digested, and utilized uncertainty to test a creative, resilient, pedagogical and curricular innovative approach to collaborative teaching teams. By removing the traditional structures of class “sections” each headed by a faculty member, we were able to address systemic inequities, improve accessibility, increase flexibility, adaptivity, and flow, and lean into uncertainty as a way to facilitate responsiveness instead of paralysis. Collapsing boundaries around sections created a consistent foundation for every student, with shared expectations, standards, grading, and pedagogies. Resources that might otherwise have been inequitably distributed across sections were now available to all students at once, including increased access to each faculty member and their networks. We used typical academic facilitation platforms like Canvas and Google Drive in new ways to facilitate the capture of all student deliverables, which could be shared across all of the faculty. Because of the flexibility of our learning model, we were able to provide greater access for students - and faculty - facing barriers to attending classes, allowing us to prioritize our needs as humans facing a collectively traumatic and difficult time instead of feeling pressured by academic requirements. We found over the course of two semesters that this approach afforded several positive outcomes that can now be utilized in hybrid, digital, and analog approaches to large-sized classes. We intend to present on how our model utilizes uncertainty as an organizing principle, which created greater opportunity for adaptivity and flow throughout two semesters of digital learning. This session is intended for classes that are split into multiple sections (2+).
We embraced, digested, and utilized uncertainty to test a creative, resilient, pedagogical and curricular innovative approach to collaborative teaching teams. By removing the traditional structures of class “sections” each headed by a faculty member, we were able to address systemic inequities, improve accessibility, increase flexibility, adaptivity, and flow, and lean into uncertainty as a way to facilitate responsiveness instead of paralysis. Collapsing boundaries around sections created a consistent foundation for every student, with shared expectations, standards, grading, and pedagogies. Resources that might otherwise have been inequitably distributed across sections were now available to all students at once, including increased access to each faculty member and their networks. We used typical academic facilitation platforms like Canvas and Google Drive in new ways to facilitate the capture of all student deliverables, which could be shared across all of the faculty. Because of the flexibility of our learning model, we were able to provide greater access for students - and faculty - facing barriers to attending classes, allowing us to prioritize our needs as humans facing a collectively traumatic and difficult time instead of feeling pressured by academic requirements. We found over the course of two semesters that this approach afforded several positive outcomes that can now be utilized in hybrid, digital, and analog approaches to large-sized classes. We intend to present on how our model utilizes uncertainty as an organizing principle, which created greater opportunity for adaptivity and flow throughout two semesters of digital learning. This session is intended for classes that are split into multiple sections (2+).
Digital learning took on a whole new meaning in the Strategic Design and Management BBA program at Parsons School of Design due to the restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because shift into full-virtual teaching happened so quickly, we seized upon the opportunities afforded by this disruption to prototype a model of collaborative teaching and learning that was designed to break down boundaries and limitations typically found in sectioned off large-sized in person classes. By embracing, digesting and utilizing the uncertainty of the moment for creative, resilient pedagogical and curricular innovation, we adapted our capstone senior projects 1&2 by coming together to push the boundaries and challenge the limitations of traditional higher education classroom experiences. We broke down sections and embraced a horizontal teaching team model allowing for consistency in outcomes, standards, and grading- more equity, inclusion and accessibility.
Collapsing boundaries around sections created a consistent foundation for every student, with shared expectations, standards, grading, and pedagogies. Resources that might otherwise have been inequitably distributed across sections were now available to all students at once, including increased access to each faculty member and their networks. We used typical academic facilitation platforms like Canvas and Google Drive in new ways to facilitate the capture of all student deliverables, which could be shared across all of the faculty. Being fully online allowed us to be adaptable, responsive and flow with more openness and less hierarchy in the classroom space and allowed collaboration and community to drive responsiveness and nurture a much needed generative space..
True resilience is embracing the creativity and innovation that can emerge through collaborative, horizontal leadership allowing us to prioritize our needs as humans facing a collectively traumatic and difficult time instead of feeling pressured by academic requirements and limitations. By breaking boundaries and challenging system hacks we could lean into uncertainty as a way to facilitate responsiveness instead of paralysis. This approach afforded several positive outcomes that can now be utilized in hybrid, digital, and analog approaches to large-sized classes going forward.
Collapsing boundaries around sections created a consistent foundation for every student, with shared expectations, standards, grading, and pedagogies. Resources that might otherwise have been inequitably distributed across sections were now available to all students at once, including increased access to each faculty member and their networks. We used typical academic facilitation platforms like Canvas and Google Drive in new ways to facilitate the capture of all student deliverables, which could be shared across all of the faculty. Being fully online allowed us to be adaptable, responsive and flow with more openness and less hierarchy in the classroom space and allowed collaboration and community to drive responsiveness and nurture a much needed generative space..
True resilience is embracing the creativity and innovation that can emerge through collaborative, horizontal leadership allowing us to prioritize our needs as humans facing a collectively traumatic and difficult time instead of feeling pressured by academic requirements and limitations. By breaking boundaries and challenging system hacks we could lean into uncertainty as a way to facilitate responsiveness instead of paralysis. This approach afforded several positive outcomes that can now be utilized in hybrid, digital, and analog approaches to large-sized classes going forward.