MCLA Center for Teaching and Learning to Present Virtual Event on Nov. 23

NORTH ADAMS — The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Center for Teaching and Learning will present a virtual event with Robin DeRosa, co-director of the Plymouth State University (PSU) Open Learning and Teaching Collaborative, on Monday, Nov. 23 from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. With a talk titled “Zooming Humans: A Framework for Teaching During Times of Crisis,” DeRosa will discuss how educators can respond to the challenges of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This event, geared toward faculty, staff, and the MCLA community, is also open to the public, and local educators are encouraged to attend. For more information and to register, click here.

DeRosa is a national leader in open pedagogy and an advocate for public infrastructures and institutions for higher education. She was a professor in the English Department at Plymouth State University for 15 years before becoming the director of the Interdisciplinary Studies program, a position she held for four years. As the new director of the Open Learning and Teaching Collaborative, she works with students, faculty, staff, and administrative colleagues on exploring learner-driven architectures for projects, courses, partnerships, and programs at PSU.

COVID-19 has pushed students, faculty, and institutions into new learning patterns. These patterns are at various times exciting, exhausting, and exasperating. As we struggle to navigate unfamiliar online environments and the fallout of maintaining educational continuity during a global pandemic, we may find ourselves adrift in a sea of technology tools and a sense that our core mission as educators and learners is lost in the chaos of just making it through each week. In this presentation, DeRosa will present a framework for organizing educational responses to crises like coronavirus, and help faculty and staff find a practice-based rudder to guide the development of assignments, courses, and institutional structures. Ultimately, she will suggest that how we respond to the challenges that COVID-19 presents can set us on a path for an educational future that is more adaptable, connected, and equitable — and more humane — for learners.