FEATURE: OUR PANDEMIC JOURNEY
Mark Osler
students, regardless of location – making sure to stay vigilant about including online students in the class, so they didn’t feel relegated to the margins. To help with this, classrooms were equipped with multiple microphones, cameras and monitors. “It’s crucial – being conscious of the people who aren’t there in person and reminding yourself to reach out to them, to call on them, to be aware of listening for them,” said Professor and Robert and Marion Short Distinguished Chair in Law Mark Osler . “With the experience of doing this [hybrid model] – even when
we go back to having everybody in the classroom with us – we’ll be better teachers because we’ll become better listeners.” Many of Osler’s classes have a coaching element to them. He shows students where to stand in a courtroom, how to interact with witnesses, how to read body language and other skills. These are hard to recreate online. “You lose the immediacy of that when you don’t have the people right in front of you in class,” he said.
Page 16 St. Thomas Lawyer
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