SCAD students and professors share their thoughts on hybrid and on-ground classes

Written by Paul Jerome Watson, Graphic by Abby Chadwick

The Georgia Department of Public Health reports there are a total of 1,688,938 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state with a weekly average of 14,194.9 cases as of January 16. SCAD itself has confirmed there are 124 cases of COVID-19 at the Savannah campus alone on January 14 despite the precautions in place.

With the high rates of infection across the world, COVID-19 remains a topic of conversation. For universities like SCAD, it is a conversation of what is best for the school, its faculty and its students: hybrid/online classes or on-ground lectures.

SCAD fully transitioned back to on-ground classes as of Winter 2022 after several academic quarters in a hybrid/online setting. Professors and students have felt both the positives and negatives of these approaches.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said SCAD Professor Thomas Hull. “I teach graphic design and, in some ways, it’s a familiar piece of territory.”

Professor Hull has worked with Zoom for over a decade for various projects from his studio in Houston, Texas. When SCAD transitioned from on-ground to online classes in Summer 2020, he found the process easy and felt the classroom setting was natural for the format necessary for the “times we were in.”

“Classes are a little different from a business meeting,” said Hull, “but in some ways, the context is the same. You gotta give your ideas, you gotta show visuals, you gotta get people engaged—you have to participate, it can’t be a one-way conversation.”

The engagement was ultimately Hull’s sticking point regarding the hybrid/online environment. Whether there was one person on the Zoom call or ten, Hull prioritized any students in the classroom at the time.

“I think the tough part about the online classes was the online students struggled to feel connected to the class,” said Hull. “As much as I tried to be engaging in the same way, it’s just hard without people in the room.”

Hull’s struggles are something that he and Professor Andrea Goto share. The initial change to online classes was “new technology” to her and is something she still struggles with when needed. Despite being in the writing department and teaching an art form suitable for an online environment, Goto admitted there was a notable disconnect between students and the classes she was teaching.

“The hybrid doesn’t work well for instructors as well as students,” said Goto. “The students that always participate are the ones who come to [on-ground] class.”

Goto also spoke about her husband’s difficulties as a sequential arts teacher. Where he would walk around his classroom and look over the shoulders of students to critique their work in a physical environment, he needed to undergo an entire restructure to accommodate an online format. Goto’s only real ease came to workshops over Zoom as she felt critiques worked over the class call.

“Worked just fine in terms of workshops,” said Goto. “Once we got started, it started going pretty well.”

Though there were complications in the online/hybrid environment, students are thankful for what the professors had done to keep class engagement and ensure their safety.

“Obviously it’s better in person,” said SCAD story and design student Sadie Lange, “but it’s nice to have that choice, if you’re feeling sick, to not go in and risk getting your classmates sick.”

Despite Lange’s appreciation, she admits there was a degree of separation and loss of focus during these classes. She claimed this stemmed from both students and teachers alike, neither putting forth the effort to engage with each other over the ones active in class. Her feelings haven’t changed since the return of on-ground classes.

“The same people who would be online and not talking are just in-person and not talking,” said Lange. “I think it’s about the same either way.”

Despite the different views and roles at SCAD, each person interviewed agreed that, if the school returns to hybrid/online classes, they’d welcome it if still wary of it.

“If it became necessary, I think it’s absolutely a useful tool,” said Professor Hull. “But it is not a permanent solution.”