What does social distancing look like for GSOE students and faculty during this unique time? Over the next few weeks, we will be posting stories from GSOE staff and faculty about their experiences during COVID-19. 

For our first installment, we interviewed Kinnari Atit, assistant professor and director of STEM Teaching and Learning Lab.

Where are you sheltering in place?
At my home in Monrovia, CA. 

What has been the biggest challenge to your daily life over the past few weeks?The biggest challenge has been trying to balance being a parent of a toddler while still teaching and doing research. I know that people always talk about work-life balance, but what we are experiencing now is work-life collision, and it is not easy. It took some time for me to adjust to our new lives, and now that it has been a few weeks, it has gotten better, but it is still not perfect. Some days are harder than others, but I just try to take it one day at a time. 

 

You were a recipient of The Innovative Learning Technology Initiative grant from UCOP, a grant that provides ladder rank faculty with funding and resources to develop high quality online courses. How did your experience with this help you prepare for transitioning into online learning for all your courses during COVID-19? Do you have any tips or resources related to this to share with others? The ILTI grant was so helpful. I teach EDUC 162: Learning Theory and Psychology in Education, and because of the grant, I had most of my material prepped and ready to go because I was already planning on teaching my course online before COVID-19 hit. So, it made the transition to teaching online much easier than it would have been if I was originally supposed to teach an in-person course.

I would say my biggest tip for others is to prerecord your lectures. I think if you can prerecord short 10-minute lecture segments to be posted online for your students to watch, it takes the pressure off of lecturing live through a computer, and having to deal with any associated technological issues that might happen while trying to do it live. You can easily record your lectures using Zoom. 

Do you have any tips or words of motivation for students who may be struggling during this unprecedented time? I know that people have been saying this all along, but we really are all in this together. So, if you are struggling, or are in a challenging situation, talk to your instructors about it. They understand and want to be helpful. I know asking for help is hard, but it’s a much better option than falling off the grid or falling really behind. Many of your instructors are struggling too to keep afloat, and so they might be more understanding than you think J Open lines of communications are important, especially at this time when face to face contact is non-existent. 

Have you found any particularly helpful resources or discoveries during the past few weeks? I would say my headphones. I have never been able to read or write in a noisy situation, but the last few weeks, I have learned to work in a lot of situations and my headphones have become essential to getting things done. The other thing I would say is that I set goals for myself to reach each day. It’s hard to focus with so much going on, and so setting bite size goals for each day seems much more manageable than trying to achieve large tasks. 

How do you de-stress during this time? I spin and lift weights. I have a spin bike and some weights, and I exercise maybe like 4-5 times a week for about 45 minutes each time. Because I know I won’t get be able to fit it in during the day once everyone else wakes up, I wake up early to do it. I love the endorphin rush and it keeps me sane during this crazy time. 

Anything else you’d like to share? This is truly and honestly a situation like no other we’ve ever been in before. And so, all I can say is that we all just need to do our best to stay safe and healthy first. And then getting our work done comes second.