Student Support inthe Virtual Classroom–Virtual Digital Assistants

All things considered, the transition from in-person lecture hall teaching to virtual classroom teaching went as smoothly as could be expected for UMass Boston faculty in Spring 2020,
when the pandemic’s impact was first being felt on campus. Yetwhen the Fall 2020 semester arrived, conversations with faculty convinced the Educational Technology & Learning Commons team that more help was needed, and a plan was quickly put in place to provide faculty with that assistance.

Specifically, the TEACH Fall 2020 team learned that faculty teaching large classes (75+ students) were facing challenges managing both technology and remote pedagogy. To address this issue, a plan to hire four graduate students as Virtual Digital Assistants (VDA) was devised by the eLearning & Instructional Support team and led by Irene Yukhananov, the university’s Digital Initiatives Lead. The program was funded through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

After sifting through more than 70 applications, Yukhananov selected four graduate students of diverse disciplines to work as VDAs, and the program began early in the Spring 2021 semester. Emma Byrne, Kati Albert, Sara Harland, and Julie Krzanowski were pre-assigned to certain faculty or randomly assigned to courses to aid faculty with many of Zoom’s more advanced features, all while ensuring that students could have access to the live meeting and Zoom bombers were kept at bay.

“My VDA skillfully monitored the Zoom waiting room, launched polls, set up breakout rooms when needed, and relayed questions and comments from the Zoom chat,” responded one faculty member to a survey regarding the VDA pilot. “She was exceptional in every way.”

The VDAs also helped behind the scenes by working individually with faculty to assist them with Blackboard, setting up academic integrity programs such as Turnitin and
Respondus Lockdown Browser, and uploading Zoom class recordings to the cloud.
“With the VDA program, I felt that my teaching and class facilitation was greatly improved as compared to last fall, as I did not have the same anxiety over technical issues,” responded another faculty member.

This project was the result of a collaboration between many employees in the Educational Technology & Learning Commons team. Irene Yukhananov was encouraged by Paula Thorsland, the Manager of the eLearning Instructional Design Team, to take
the lead on the project. Yukhananov also praised John Jessoe, the Director of Classroom Technology and AV services, and two of his staffers, Zack Ronald and Lauren Luis, as “instrumental in supporting this project.”

“BeaconFlex really
wouldn’t be possible without the VDA program,”

Apurva Mehta, IT Associate CIO

Also included in this edition of IT Outcomes is the story (see page 11) of the introduction of BeaconFlex at UMass Boston. BeaconFlex is an innovative system of teaching and learning that will allow students in a limited number of Fall 2021 courses to choose between attending the class in person, or remotely via web conferencing. VDAs had a lot to do with the successful implementation of the BeaconFlex system. “BeaconFlex really
wouldn’t be possible without the VDA program,” said Apurva Mehta, Associate CIO of IT Services.