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Environmental and Sustainability Studies Spring 2021

Classes in the interdisciplinary Environmental and Sustainability Studies program are taught by faculty from all over campus. These elective classes are complemented by our core ENS curriculum, which consists of five to six classes taught each semester by ENS program faculty. Several ENS faculty have opted to teach their Spring 2021 courses as a hybrid of in-person and online meetings. When these classes meet on campus, the lecture will be broadcast on Zoom to accommodate students who may not be able to attend in person. The remaining half of our core classes are a mix of asynchronous and synchronous online modes. For many students, the flexibility that comes with an asynchronous format allows them to adjust work and study schedules as well as to accommodate pandemic concerns that can differ radically from student-to-student. Synchronous classes offer more live interaction among students and the instructor. However, even these live classes are being recorded and placed online for viewing for students who could not attend. The ENS faculty report that the pandemic has been a catalyst to diversify how they teach, and to question the ways in which we previously engaged students. Although a physical classroom provides a directness of learning that cannot be replicated in some ways, ENS faculty are creatively employing new modes of teaching and providing enriching academic experiences. They have been able to be more attentive to the individual circumstances and needs of each student because of the adjustments in how we teach.