Undergraduate Students' Attitudes towards Online Counseling since the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has left tertiary students feeling anxious, stressed, and depressed. As a result, online counseling is a new option for students seeking counseling to alleviate stress and anxiety. The aims of this study were to 1) investigate undergraduate students' attitudes towards online counseling since the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2) compare the attitudes of undergraduate students at Mahasarakham University towards online counseling since the COVID-19 pandemic, classified by gender, academic year, grade point average (GPA), faculty, experience in face-to-face counseling, and experience in online counseling. The participants were 417 undergraduate students from Mahasarakham University who were selected by using a convenient sampling method. The research instrument was the questionnaire on undergraduate students' attitudes towards online counseling. The researcher used percentage, mean, standard deviation, independent sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the undergraduate students' attitudes towards online counseling were at a high level. Further, the undergraduate students' attitudes towards online counseling were statistically significant differences at a level of p<0.01 attributed to the variables of genders and GPAs.

Purposefully-Designed and Mindfully-Facilitated Online Courses

The COVID-19 pandemic seriously impacted the ability of educational institutions to deliver in-person instruction. A pragmatic solution was remote teaching, which in most cases was essentially in-person courses delivered synchronously via computer-mediated technology and videoconferencing. Student reaction to, and faculty experience of, remote teaching and learning was varied but generally less than enthusiastic. There was a growing realization that, pedagogically, emergency remote teaching could not satisfactorily replicate either well-delivered in-person instruction or well-designed distance online courses. With the anticipation that higher education will increasingly focus on online delivery, there has been renewed interest, at both the institutional and faculty level, in how effective distance learning online courses are conceptualized, designed, and facilitated. This chapter attempts, briefly but comprehensively, to explore the theoretical and practical issues involved in purposefully designing and mindfully facilitating online distance learning courses.

Observations on the Talk and the Walk

This chapter provides basic definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and identifies skills and competencies necessary for the chief diversity officer (CDO) in higher education, post-2020. Specific concepts from research and industry provide strategies and tactics for the professional stepping into “the work.” This chapter enters the dialogue about DEI from the entry point of consulting as change manager with faculty experience. It proceeds from there to discuss the five terrains of inclusive excellence that offer a new foundation for equity of policy and practice in higher education. The terrains lead into an examination of intersectionality and the work of creating an intentionally diverse community. Decision quality and critical thinking and other competencies for inclusive excellence leadership, such as emotional intelligence and cultural competence, round out the dialogue with specific observations from and suggestions for research and practice.

A COGNITIVE STYLISTIC STUDY OF SELECTED SKITS ON AFRICAN SOCIAL MEDIA/ UN ESTUDIO COGNITIVO ESTILISTICO DE SKITS SELECCIONADOS EN LAS REDES SOCIALES AFRICANAS

This research aims at examining how the cognitive stylistic model of analysis can be useful in the interpretation of African skits. The analytical process reveals how viewers make interpretive connections between the text-world and the real world, by bringing their experience and background knowledge to interact with the text. Two skits – one Nigerian and one Ghanaian – were purposively retrieved from YouTube for the analysis, using a qualitative approach within the cognitive stylistic framework of Text World Theory. We discovered a congruence of the cognitive faculty, experience, and epistemic perceptions leading to the construction of the discourse worlds of the skits.

Navigating Shomoyscapes: Time and faculty life in the urban Global South

We aim to decenter the Global North knowledge production about time in higher education (HE) by introducing and applying a culturally sustaining concept of shomoyscapes. While the Bengali word “shomoy” literally means “time,” it goes beyond “clock time” and also refers to memories, present moments, feelings, a particular duration, and/or signifier for a temporal engagement. A shomoyscape entails a complex temporal landscape of different temporal categories, constraints, agencies, and to various degrees, embodies hybrid times (i.e., modern time coexisting with non-linear local/traditional time). Drawing on interviews and participant observations with 22 faculty in Dhaka, Bangladesh, we demonstrate the efficacy of shomoyscapes by illuminating how faculty experience, contest, and manipulate their time(s) amid rapid socio-economic transformations of Dhaka, an urban, Global South mega city. We show how shomoyscapes manifest as faculty experience temporal constraints, such as (a) traffic, (b) party-based university politics, and (c) caring for others. We suggest that Bangladeshi faculty experience and navigate shomoyscapes that are constituted by both larger temporal constraints (spatial, structural, or relational) and their temporal agency in response to these same constraints. Using a temporal lens, we contribute to a more in depth understanding of the experiences of faculty working and living in an urban, Global South context, highlighting how life “outside the academy” spills over into working “inside the academy,” rather than vice versa. We argue that shomoyscapes offer a useful temporal heuristic to help contextualize human/social relations in different arenas of social life that would otherwise remain invisible.

Emerging Scholars and Junior Faculty Present New Strategies for Student Engagement in Gerontology

With the rapid aging of the population, the need for gerontological educators to identify pedagogical strategies to increase interest and prepare students continues to grow. Innovative approaches and educational practices contribute greatly to student success in the gerontological classroom. Literature on gerontological pedagogy has shed light on the success of high-impact practices, creative assignments, pedagogical interventions, and even different course modalities when it comes to effectively delivering gerontological content and engaging students. Additionally, the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) provides a wealth of suggestions for creating and implementing effective gerontology courses and assignments. However, while we are familiar with these practices, we are not familiar with how specific groups of academics, such as emerging scholars and junior faculty, are utilizing them. Emerging scholars and junior faculty experience several major transitions as they prepare for life in academia. To ensure that emerging scholars and junior faculty are well prepared, we need to continue to empower these individuals to foster growth. This can be done by highlighting how emerging scholars and junior faculty have met the goals of maximizing and optimizing student learning. As such, the purpose of this symposium is to examine innovative approaches used by emerging scholars and junior academics in the gerontological classroom that have optimized student learning. This includes presentations on strategies for team-based learning, using intersectionality as a theoretical lens, and two creative written assignments, The Gerontological Movie Database Review and Interview an Elder.

COVID-19 Effects on Communication Course and Faculty Evaluations

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are utilized by universities as one component in assessing course effectiveness, despite evidence in the research regarding their validity. With the global COVID-19 pandemic, many universities rapidly transitioned teaching modalities from face-to-face to online learning, regardless of the faculty experience. This study investigates the effects on SETs of the rapid transition in teaching modalities for all sections of courses occurring during COVID-19 compared with all sections of courses taught within a Communication department at a large public research university over the past 8 years. The results indicate moderate effects from the rapid transition to online learning.