PSII-B-20 - Benefits of a lecture teaching assistant in hiflex courses

The Covid-19 pandemic has required implantation of online education strategies, even for animal science courses, that are traditionally delivered face-to-face (F2F). As universities reopened many students were given the option of attending classes either F2F or remotely via live stream. This scenario, where some students are present in-person while others are present online simultaneously, is referred to as hiflex teaching. Face-to-face and online teaching strategies are established and literature contains pedagogical information, however hiflex teaching presents previously unencountered challenges. It can be difficult for instructors to maintain engagement with, essentially, two separative audiences of students. The objective was to address this issue by providing a graduate teaching assistant (TA) to large lecture courses, where traditionally TA positions were reserved only for lab courses. The hypothesis was that this would enable both audiences to receive appropriate focus. In this study, a TA attended the F2F lecture for an introductory equine science course (total students: n = 75; remote students: n= ~55), with the role of monitoring the simultaneous Zoom session with remote students. We found that questions from remote students increased when they had the ability to post them in real-time using the Zoom chat feature, as opposed waiting for a break in instruction in F2F situations. Having the TA present in the classroom enabled them to answer basic questions via Zoom, and to interact with the instructor should a question arise online that would benefit all students in the course. This allowed the instructor to effectively teach without taking up valuable class time alternating between programs on the computer and risking missing an online student question. This approach received positive feedback from the instructor and students alike. Additionally, it provided a novel teaching experience for a graduate TA. Similar strategies may be used to help to facilitate future success in hiflex courses.