Remote learning at NYU Shanghai has taken many forms. When initially implemented in Spring 2020, all students were required to take classes online.

In the Fall 2020 semester, NYUSH officially reopened with mixed-mode learning, with online students integrated virtually into NYUSH’s in-person classrooms.

Despite attempts to make classes accessible to students abroad, many remote students felt that there was a disparity between them and their in-person classmates, who received more attention and engagement.

“It was hard to watch the in-person students knowing I couldn’t be there to participate in the classroom,” said Ariana Alvarez, Class of 2023.

In addition, online students struggled with taking classes in various time zones. Many students had to wake up in the middle of the night to participate in synchronous class sessions.

Seeing these difficulties, several NYUSH professors were willing to take on extra responsibilities to accommodate online students. These efforts focused on fostering inclusivity in their classes.

Professor Marcos L. Martinez of the Writing Department at NYU Shanghai was one of these professors.

In his Fall 2020 Perspectives on the Humanities course, Professor Martinez divided his students into six “planets,” whereby they could sign up for class times that suited their time zone.

Rather than teaching two class sections a week, Professor Martinez taught six different sections of his class. Utilizing forums in NYU Classes, Martinez even found ways for all the students in the course to engage with each other outside the smaller class sessions.

Aside from accommodating time zones for students, Martinez also prioritized keeping his class fresh and engaging.

“I know that students often get ‘Zoom fatigue,’ so I wanted to have smaller, shorter sections where students really focus and enjoy class time,” said Martinez.

Professor Martinez attributes the idea for smaller class sections to the former head of the Writing Department at NYU Shanghai, Jennifer Tomscha.

Tomscha led several meetings with the Writing faculty to re-envision their plans for the semester, and develop ideas for how best to support remote students.

She said inclusivity was a main focus in her planning of online Writing classes for the semester.

“I wanted to preserve the students’ autonomy and their own choices, regardless of where their geopolitical circumstances had left them at the moment,” she said.

Tomscha also praised the Writing faculty for their efforts in creating flexible classes and accommodating online students.

“I will say that the Writing faculty really stepped up to the plate,” she said.

With many students returning to Shanghai from around the globe, Spring 2021 presented new challenges to mixed-mode and online learning.

Travel restrictions and quarantine requirements prevented many international students from arriving on time to attend classes at the start of the semester. Some students returned to campus as late as three weeks after classes began.

In order to accommodate these students returning later, many NYU Shanghai classes were offered in mixed-mode format for the first few weeks of the semester, before transitioning fully to in-person lectures.

For NYUSH’s World Languages department, mixed-mode classes weren’t enough to keep students engaged with their Chinese language classes.

Instead, the Chinese language faculty developed a new plan. Students returning late to campus could participate in an online class section, before transitioning to an in-person Chinese class.

This way, students in quarantine would be able to receive the full attention of remote instructors, and be able to participate equally in class, which is often an issue in mixed-mode classrooms.

Jie Yuan, one of the members of the Chinese language faculty, shared her experience teaching online sections, while transitioning some of the remote students to in-person Chinese classes.

“We knew students were coming back at different times, so we wanted the transition to go smoothly for them. We didn’t want students to miss out on even one week of class,” Yuan said.

The process of coordinating student’s online sections and transition to in-person sections was an entire faculty effort.

A pre-survey was sent out to all students taking Chinese classes in the spring, indicating when they were returning to campus. These results were then recorded into a spreadsheet shared with the faculty members.

Professors like Yuan Laoshi coordinated with in-person instructors to transfer grades and assignments from the students transitioning. Communication with the students was primarily done through email.

As for professors with in-person sections, many were willing to take on extra students in their classes, due to the difficulties of transitioning.

For example, Professor Meng Zhou is teaching an Intermediate Chinese II class this semester with 15 students, an overload number for a typical Chinese class.

Ariana Alvarez is one of the many students who transitioned back to in-person classes this spring in Shanghai. Yuan helped her move from an online section to an in-person Chinese class.

“I really appreciate the Laoshis going out of their way to help us transition. Yuan Laoshi even communicated with me on WeChat to address class scheduling issues, and Song Laoshi was extremely welcoming in her in-person class,” said Alvarez.

When asked what the goals of the Chinese department were in this transition, Yuan said they wanted to build a “community where students could learn and communicate, both online or in-person.”

As the Spring 2021 semester continued, some NYUSH professors found that transitioning fully to in-person classes after the first few weeks of school would exclude some online students.

Marcos Brisson, Class of 2023, registered for NYUSH mixed-mode classes in the hope of returning to Shanghai early in the spring semester.

However, Australia’s border restrictions wouldn’t allow for his travel to Shanghai. Instead, Brisson was faced with classes that were intended to transition fully to in-person soon after the semester started.

One of these classes was Principles of Financial Accounting, taught by Professor Chen Li.

Rather than teaching exclusively to in-person students, Professor Li decided to adapt her class to continue with mixed-mode learning.

“I decided to continue offering Zoom access to my lectures for all the three sections I am teaching, even though only one student could not return to Shanghai for the entire semester,” said Li.

“I was hoping to provide more flexibility to students who were dealing with their returning travel arrangements, and might not be able to return on time because of unusual circumstances.”

Professor Li also made efforts to engage online students on Zoom before they transitioned to in-person lectures.

“It is very important to me to give students equal attention during mixed-mode teaching. I intentionally did call on students on Zoom more often at the beginning of the semester,” she said.

Brisson appreciates the way some professors have gone above and beyond to accommodate his unique situation, saying that “they have been key to his successful remote learning experience this semester.”

These featured professors are among the many NYUSH professors who have gone out of their way to accommodate online students in their classrooms.

While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the academic plans of both students and professors at NYUSH, these professors have redefined what it means to be inclusive and engaging in a remote learning environment.