Forestry Instruction During the Pandemic: How It Happened

A Glimpse Inside a Friday Focus On Session

August 11, 2021
Written by Andrew Storer and Janaki Alavalapati 
The COVID-19 pandemic brought sweeping changes to how many university forestry courses operate. In the blink of an eye, faculty and administrators pivoted to a different method of teaching. As with so many parts of society, higher education had to step up during the pandemic. This meant adapting and continuing to work to fulfill our mission to educate the foresters of tomorrow. 

Students were sent home in March 2020 and told to prepare for online course delivery. Graduation ceremonies were canceled, and summer courses were offered in new ways (if offered at all).

The fall semester of 2020 brought face coverings, face shields, social distancing, greatly reduced classroom capacities, the need for access to student isolation spaces, and the challenges of course delivery to students located in the same room as well as students located remotely. All instructors and students are to be congratulated on how operations went. Through this, students and instructors have shown remarkable adaptability, patience, and resilience as our forestry programs worked to navigate a pandemic that developed on different timelines and intensities around the country. The core thrust of the response was how to get students outdoor, hands-on education to prepare them for their careers!
 
In late summer and early fall, members of the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs (NAUFRP) engaged in online email discussions to compare notes about the summer, and to learn from one another about plans for the fall. While some saw drops in fall enrollments, others reported increases. Almost all had worked on developing a fall semester that included some in-person classes, online content, and hybrid classes that had course delivery in multiple ways. A few, however, had no in-person classes, and many limited in-person classes to field-based classes and reduced capacity lab sections. Instructional personnel had to be ready for everything – students simultaneously in person and online, sudden shutdowns of in person teaching, students absent due to the pandemic, and teaching wearing face coverings and shields. 

Most forestry programs offer some type of in-person field-based programs in the summer. The response of different institutions to the pandemic in the summer of 2020 was varied. While very few went ahead as planned, most either went virtual or were postponed until summer 2021. 
Delivering virtual field-based education in the pandemic often involved shipping field equipment to students, lecturing online, and using technologies such as live streaming to engage with students. Given the speed of the change, things went remarkably well. Despite the success over the pandemic, it is paramount that educators and employers continue to work with new foresters to help them hone their field skills as part of their ongoing professional development.

Over time, almost all institutions have made giant steps toward a more “normal” classroom and field experience, and some of the focus has shifted into what we have learned from the pandemic that may make long-term improvements to course delivery, and to improved access to forestry education. 

The innovation due to necessity has now become innovation due to opportunity, and we are looking forward to bringing access to quality forestry education to more diverse audiences and engaging with the public in new ways that expand and elevate the perception of the profession. Everyone looks forward to field classes remaining at the core of forestry education, but our eyes have been opened to other opportunities that can benefit society in the future.

As a part of the virtual SAF Convention, the Friday Focus On Session, Forestry Education in a Post-pandemic World, will continue to discuss the challenges and opportunities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Join us to engage with four panelists of forestry educators and administrators as they reflect on what worked during the pandemic, the challenges that impacted their institutions, and the opportunities for forestry education in a post-pandemic world.

Andrew Storer is NAUFRP Education Committee Chair and Dean of the College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Tech. Janaki Alavalapati is President of the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs (NAUFRP) and Dean of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.