Maize & BLUEprint: Building Connections in Remote Settings

Marcus Collins, marketing lecturer at Michigan Ross, has been designing courses and identifying best practices for the online learning environment over the summer—but he hasn’t let that take away from establishing new ways to build and maintain connections with students, peers, and colleagues.

In this episode of Michigan Minds, Collins explains the process of preparing for the fall semester at U-M by taking “the spirit of the class” and reimagining  it to fit the particular hybrid environment. 

He offers an analogy:  “For instance, if I’m an artist and I’m performing at Coachella, I design the set list, and the interstitials, and transitions; everything is built for that particular configuration,” he says. “However, if I’m playing at an intimate theater, and it’s just me and an acoustic guitar, my set list is catered for that environment. That’s the same thing here. It may be the same song, the same content, it may be the same spirit, but it’s designed for the environment. This isn’t the remix, this is designing it for the particular environment that we’re in.”

Collins has always considered teaching to be a craft, and he is committed to continuously getting better at it. He says U-M faculty help students see the world through a different lens and he tries to find a variety of ways to make that possible. 

He notes that his  Zoom office hours have grown into a strong networking tool, and emphasizes how important it is to find ways to build and maintain relationships with colleagues. After students started dropping in, Collins realized that the meetings could be broadened to include discussions on contemporary issues, and would serve as an excellent way to stay in touch with other groups like faculty and alumni.

“I feel like the networked world that we live in is doing what it does, it facilitates the network effect that allows us to connect in hyper-connected ways that we normally couldn’t have. Yes, we don’t get to give high fives, or look each other in the eye, but we still get to connect. I think that still feels very human,” Collins says. 

“We’ve been able to adjust, and use these ways to see each other, and to feel connected nonetheless.”

Collins adds that he has been impressed by students and faculty at U-M and their ability to quickly adapt, and hopes the preparations for  virtual teaching and learning will have a positive impact on education going forward.

“I have learned so much from what it takes to design a rich educational environment that even after we go back to ‘normal,’which will never be fully normal, but it will get back to some normality—I will still use a lot of the skills that I’ve developed over the course of this time to help supplement the learning,” he says.

Hear more in this episode of Michigan Minds.

Download the transcript.

Learn more about taking care of Maize & Blue at campusblueprint.umich.edu/care