Student Government: How Can We Fix Online Classes
The Minnesota State University, Mankato Student Government held their weekly meeting in the Ostrander Auditorium, Wednesday, Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. After roll call, they called up presentations.
The first to present was from Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Henry Morris on the student success survey. This survey was taken in the summer semester and then again in the beginning of the fall semester.
Through this survey, the government members wanted to know the answers to a few questions, such as: “How can we increase engagement with students and teachers through online format?”, “What resources do students use on D2L”, and “How comfortable are students and teachers with online classes?”
With the answers to these questions, it has helped administration implement programs that are beneficial to students and staff. One of these include having teachers who have taught online before COVID-19 be mentors for other teachers. Another is starting new program incentives on D2L, like the awards page, to encourage engagement in online courses.
Through these incentives, the administration hopes to solve the problems they currently have with the online format and helping the students achieve success in online courses.
The next presentation was given by Director of Strategic Communications Amy Linde on an IT Solutions update. In this presentation, Linde discussed the different ways IT Solutions is improving during these times of online courses. They plan on educating students more on how to use D2L and giving out tips and tricks on how to use Microsoft. The students’ success in online formats is their top priority.
Following the presentations came an open forum. In this open forum, they talked about the new free COVID-19 testing center at the old Gander Mountain, which is found at 1940 Adams St.
This is a saliva test where the results come back in 24-72 hours. This center will be open through at least the end of this semester.
Next, the senators gave their reports. Senators Nelson, Nimo, Khan, Husain, and Swancutt discussed their projects in the work.
These included creating a booklet containing information about off-campus housing at MNSU and what to look for when researching housing options, creating a resource guide for graduate students to get them more involved with the Maverick community, providing more resources to find internships for the College of Science and Engineering students, working to create a better communication system between advisors and students, and getting an LGBTQ+ learning community started and potentially and LGBTQ+ hall in the dorms.
Senator Nathan was elected as the new senator for the College of Science and Engineering.
The next meeting will be held on Nov. 4 at 4 p.m. in the Ostrander Auditorium.