University of St. Thomas Magazine COVID-19 Special Edition

WITH LITTLE TO NO NOTICE FACULTY TRANSFER THEIR CLASSROOMS TO ONLINE LEARNING ZOOMING INTO ONLIN

By JORDAN OSTERMAN ’11

Dr. Mary Slack’s organizational leadership course always ends with a simulation final, with student-created businesses competing against one another for customers and market share. When COVID-19 forced the capstone class online, Slack’s students co-created not just their businesses, but how to make the entire final simulation virtual. The result: Tommie Town, which used tools like the Remind app, Zoom and VoiceThread to replicate the dynamic learning process of running their businesses in the real world. “Students really love that experience, and I think it’s even better now because of that co-creation aspect of how we developed everything together,” said Slack, Opus College of Business clinical faculty member. Her course was part of a massive movement: Since March 12, more than 900 St. Thomas faculty members taught more than 2,000 courses to more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students. This summer another 450 courses will be taught. It may appear as if the move to online learning took place in a matter of days, which – in a literal sense – it did. The reality,

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