Professors are adapting final exams to fit an online format.
Prior to COVID-19 cancellations, some teachers planned group projects and public showcases that can no longer happen in person. Some collaborative final exams have been modified to individual assignments.
Bryan Cardinale-Powell, assistant professor and chair of film, said the majority of film finals are project-based.
“Students have the challenge of having to do their productions without the same equipment support we’re able to have at school, but they’re definitely getting the same kind of faculty support,” Cardinale-Powell said.
Cardinale-Powell said he’s had to change the parameter of some of his assignments, as an important aspect of them is collaboration.
“In this case, they’re still collaborating, but it’s going on at a distance,” Cardinale-Powell said. “I don’t know if it’s fair to call it better or worse necessarily, but it’s different.”
Cardinale-Powell said the capstone films have been challenging due to lack of access to the university’s equipment.
“Students have had limited access to equipment they would usually use for their final post-production on their films,” Cardinale-Powell said. “That being said, we have found ways to share the screen and work together to still have that interaction in the editing stage that we’d have in person.”
Collin Salmonowicz, film senior, said he’s thankful he had resources at home to finish editing his capstone film.
“Personally, not being able to access the school’s equipment hasn’t affected me, but I know it has affected a lot of students,” Salmonowicz said. “A lot of software companies we use have been really gracious in releasing their programs to students in this time. It’s been an interesting experience.”
Cardinale-Powell said the final presentation of the capstones are usually a public screening, but this year they will be combined with a yearly showing of the film department’s work and streamed though YouTube.
“We’ll still have the opportunity for the work to be shown, but it’s not quite the way we would have preferred,” Cardinale-Powell said.
Lance Marsh, professor of acting and head of performance, also said he usually has public showcases in lieu of a final for his Acting IV and Special Topics in Comedy classes.
“Instead of doing scenes, students will be performing doing solo projects and monologues in front of their classmates on Zoom for the final,” Marsh said.
Marsh said despite the limitations of conducting an acting class online, there have still been opportunities for effective teaching.
“Teaching an acting class online is kind of crazy,” Marsh said. “There’s some things that are hard to teach not being in a studio, but I think we’ve managed to cobble together something that does a surprisingly good job at teaching them the things I would have taught them in the classroom.”
Sara Massoudi, acting sophomore, is in Marsh’s Acting IV class and said though they’re mainly working on monologues now, they were able to spend time on their partnered scene-work while they were still on campus.
“It’s obviously really different now, but I think it’s useful,” Massoudi said. “There’s some classes that being there and having that energy is so important. Lacking that energy is really difficult when you’re majoring in something that is so creative, but I think we’re making the best out of the situation.”
Massoudi said her Stagecraft and Vocal Production classes also had to change the format of their class work and final exams.
“We don’t have the tools and means to do a lot of what we planned before, so I had to change one of my projects, and some of it is kind of dumbed-down,” Massoudi said.
Some teachers’ final exams haven’t been as affected by transitioning online.
Dr. Mark Davies, Wimberly professor of social and ecological ethics, said the finals for his classes won’t change drastically, as essay exams and group presentations will be replaced by take-home exams and individual presentations.
“Philosophy finals are usually written exams or a presentation anyways, and those can be done online easily,” Davies said. “It’s not a big change for me personally.”
Davies said his Food Ethics class is a service-learning course that requires 10 hours of volunteer work.
“We have found ways for students to do service learning online,” Davies said. “The students in my Food Ethics course are working as virtual volunteers to help assist the Oklahoma Regional Food Bank.”
Davies also said there was a philosophy student planning to present his senior thesis this semester.
“That student will be presenting over Zoom during finals week,” Davies said. “The only difference is we won’t share pizza together.”
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