NYU Wordpress Theme

Remote Teaching and Learning

The Return of Study Away—An International Education Week Program

Posted on , modified on by Katie L

Last fall during International Education Week, NYU hosted an array of events that explored the benefits of international study away programs. One of those programs—a virtual roundtable discussion featured four NYU site directors. NYU Tel Aviv’s Benjamin Hary, NYU Accra’s Chiké Frankie Edozien, NYU Berlin’s Gabriella Etmektsoglou, and NYU London’s Catherine Robson discussed the lessons COVID-19 taught them, how they used those lessons to reconstruct their programs, and their hopes for future study away students. NYU’s Associate Director of Study Away Student Support Alejandro Marti moderated the panel.

Enlarge

22GP020_GlobalDimensions_ReturnOfStudyAway
Site directors, Chiké Frankie Edozien (top left), Gabriella Etmektsoglou (top right), Catherine Robson (bottom right), and Benjamin Hary (bottom left)

Using the Past to Reshape the Future

When the pandemic first began in 2020, the faculty and staff at NYU’s global sites quickly adjusted. They adopted Zoom technology for virtual classes, planned online events for cultural immersion, and reimagined the scope of their curricula. Unsurprisingly, the lessons they learned in 2020 influenced the trajectory of their programs in 2021. For Chiké Frankie Edozien (NYU Accra), this meant creating new experiential learning trips and adopting new wellness guidelines for students.

“We tried a lot of things during the time of restrictions with our Go Local students who were primarily Ghanaian,” said Edozien. “We tried new excursions based on topics like climate change, taking students to the sea defense wall construction site. We weren’t able to (and we’re still not able to) do overnight trips, so we tried to think of ways we could teach students about Accra outside of the classroom—ways that allowed them to come back safely without the need for excessive travel or hotels. Sometimes we held classes outside so students and professors could be out in the sun, rather than in a confined space, and feel a bit more safe. We also encouraged our faculty to implement what we call ‘mask breaks’ so students can remove their masks for a short time before continuing their work.”

Similar to NYU Accra, Benjamin Hary and his team at NYU Tel Aviv spent the first part of the pandemic redesigning their curriculum to accommodate COVID-19 regulations. They now invite a range of guest lecturers to the classroom, and they developed a robust orientation for students who might need to quarantine upon their arrival in Israel.

“As we prepared for last semester, we created ways to connect students with one another and staff,” said Hary. “What my staff did for orientation, which was totally online because students were in quarantine, is a good example of this. We usually take the students to the famous Tel Aviv market, but since we couldn’t do that, my staff created a video of the market instead. They went to each specific ethnic food place and actually bought all the same food for the students. We delivered it to their doors so when they were watching the video, we could tell them about the food, and they could follow along. They loved it.” In addition, he noted, “With Zoom, it is very easy to invite people, such as guest lecturers and other experts, to participate in our programming, regardless of their physical location.”

Preparing Intentional Coursework for All Circumstances

During the early months of the pandemic, NYU’s global staff worked hard to create a future curriculum that could span multiple formats: in person, online, and/or hybrid. By preparing for various circumstances, NYU’s global locations worked to ensure students never missed a beat in their education.

“Without our faculty, we would not have been able to offer such a good experience for our students,” said Gabriella Etmektsoglou (NYU Berlin). “They showed adaptability and flexibility. They developed so many different options for their courses within a semester. In Berlin, for example, we had times when we were teaching in person and hybrid, and we had times when we had to lock down the site for a few weeks. If you had planned trips to museums or nongovernmental organizations during those weeks, you had to totally rethink your class. The faculty really embraced, very intentionally, the values of equity, diversity, belonging, inclusion, and accessibility when rethinking their sessions. It wasn’t simply, ‘I can’t go to this museum. What do I do now?’ It was, ‘Why was I going to this museum to begin with? Is there any way I can bring this museum to my class?’”

Eagerly Awaiting Cultural Immersion

The pandemic forced educators across the globe to rethink and reimagine the ways in which students learn. While some tactics will remain in place moving forward, such as expanded access to guest lecturers, increased collaboration between study away sites, and new experiential learning opportunities, other tactics will likely fall to the wayside, like learning a new language online or participating in a remote internship—both of which are challenging to accomplish without full-blown cultural immersion.

“In orientation we always talk about immersion in your new culture,” said Catherine Robson (NYU London). “Only by doing that do you start to think deeply about the place you come from. When you’re remote, you’re still in your usual place. You don’t have that experience of sort of turning inward, of being challenged to think about your own country, your own region, your own locality. Only by being in that different environment do you really start to reflect because it defamiliarizes what was deeply unquestioned by you before. And so that is why actually being in person in that different country is so key to what we do.”
And that’s why NYU’s global staff are eager to welcome more and more students back to their centers this year in 2022.

What’s Ahead: Embrace the Unexpected

For students preparing to study abroad in the coming semesters, all four site directors encouraged them to maintain an open mind and a positive attitude.

“Right now I think students need to be adaptable and have a little bit of trust in the future,” said Etmektsoglou. “Twelve years ago when I started at NYU Berlin, it was so much more about traveling. Now it’s about your professional career and your development as a young researcher. Yes, you might miss some traveling, but it’s not the key. Because of the pandemic and because of the way we used the time, the quality of our classes increased. They’re much more focused on addressing the career skills and needs for professional competencies. They’re about applied research; they’re about becoming entrepreneurial young professionals. Students will benefit from the diversity, the guests, and all the things we embraced during the pandemic.”

Written by Samantha Jamison

Madrid Stories: Documenting Life During COVID-19

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
 

Enlarge

Screen-Shot-2020-08-10-at-2.58.29-PM

Jack Siebert

“What we saw in this period of scarcity was the emergence of creativity,” said Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo, Emmy-winning filmmakers and lecturers at NYU Madrid, who described their experience moving Madrid Stories, a location-based course, to an online format.

Madrid Stories is a semester-long class at NYU Madrid that encourages students to look, listen and explore Madrid with a documentarian’s gaze, to represent the city from new perspectives, and to seek out stories that explore and question pre-existing notions of Madrid (and Spain more broadly). Jim Fernandez, site director of NYU Madrid and professor of Spanish Literature and Culture, explained that the nature of the course made it challenging  to adapt for remote learning. “In some ways, Madrid Stories, rooted as it is in Madrid, was the most difficult course to adapt to an online format, when the COVID-19 crisis abruptly forced us to teach and learn remotely. But Rob, Almudena and the students did an amazing job, making some delicious lemonade from the lemons they were given, as it were.  Each of the thirteen films, produced in quarantine, captures the strange rhythms of confinement, and tells a story about the impossibility of returning home.”

Some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing. Robert Bahar

Bahar explained that in early March “our students had just begun work on their film projects and were offered the option to go home, and then leaving the site quickly became mandatory.” He explained that a decision had to be made about how to adapt the course curriculum, by either shifting toward an analysis of documentaries or keeping the focus on the production process. They sought input from their students, who  responded with clear enthusiasm for wanting to continue creating their own films. In fact, some students felt that the creative process of film production might be a meaningful outlet and a means for making sense of the unprecedented situation they were facing.

“The students had little in terms of production equipment, but they did have iPhones and family. They created something absolutely amazing by scavenging any available resources to create a final product — all within two weeks. They had to reimagine their lives, the course, and the project. Their lives took a turn, but in the process of doing so, the class served as a mirror on themselves, and a mirror into themselves. The process of making their films was reflective of where they were in the quarantine,” explained Carracedo. 

“We all learned to use digital tools to serve the production process,” noted Carracedo. “They had to learn new editing programs, and we taught them how to edit by sharing our screens and providing demonstrations.” The feedback process was also adapted to an online format. Zoom’s breakout room function allowed the students to work in small groups where they could view each other’s work and offer the critique and feedback that are essential to fine tune a film. “The difference between good and great is the last push of the editing and polishing,” said Bahar, “which is also the most difficult part of producing a film. We always push students toward great. We want to help them achieve their visions and be proud of their work.” 

In addition to learning new technical tools to support the filmmaking process, students also had to develop new strategies to enable them to complete their work remotely. For Jack Seibert, a rising senior at Tisch School of the Arts, said he had to learn to remind himself “that artistic processes always encounter unforeseen bumps in the road — large or small — and it is our job as creatives to develop innovative solutions to those problems while staying on schedule. I found pursuing a creative process during this time to be incredibly beneficial to my future artistic career — whether working in theater or film — because I discovered personalized tools to recognize when I feel motivated or unmotivated, and how to either encourage myself to keep working or give myself breaks.” 

Developing their film projects also helped some students cope with the sense of uncertainty brought about by the pandemic and they noted that the experience was cathartic and therapeutic. Claudia Picado, a rising senior at Steinhardt School of Education, Culture, and Human Development, explained that her film, Meires en Cuerentena, enabled her to process her experience through “self expression, while also creating something that represented my family and how we came together during quarantine.”

Colin Donahue, a visiting student at NYU Madrid from Swarthmore College, created a film entitled, In an Instant, that detailed idyllic scenes of life in Europe. It is a portrait of travel to Rome and Paris and all of the things you imagine global students doing. Donohue explained that when he first returned to the United States, he “spent the first two weeks of quarantine in my childhood bedroom reflecting on my past experiences and feeling grateful for the health and safety of my family. After looking back on the footage from my study abroad experience, I knew I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to not only remember Spain but to document how I experienced this international public health crisis.” 

Donohue said that for him and many of his classmates, the creative process became “a philosophical reflection on the lockdown and quarantine, and the feeling of going back in time when one returns to their childhood home,” said Carracedo. They used the experience to produce introspective glimpses into what life was like during uncommon times. 

While the final screenings of student productions are typically held in-person at a closing event at NYU Madrid, this year’s films were screened online, which allowed  families and friends to participate.

View all Madrid Stories here (Vimeo).

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rich History of Australian Distance Learning Prepares NYU Sydney for New Modes of Education

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

Australia

It had already been a most unusual summer in Sydney with once-in-a-generation bushfires grabbing global headlines. But as the fires began to subside, Australia faced a new challenge — the arrival of the COVID-19 virus.

Although Sydney was one of the last of NYU’s global sites to be closed, the spread of COVID-19 meant an inevitable movement to new modes of learning. According to the Times Higher Education, higher education is “pivotal” to Australia’s economy, contributing an estimated $66 billion to it each year. Thus the shift to moving to distance model in response to COVID-19 was hugely consequential not just for NYU Sydney, but all higher education institutions in Australia.

Australia actually has a long history of distance learning. “The School of the Air,” a generic term for teachers catering to children in remote and regional Australia has been in operation since June 8, 1951. In the early years of delivery, lessons were originally sent via the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Alice Springs, with classes later conducted via shortwave radio. The modernised service now sees students typically receiving one hour of face-to-face learning from teachers before spending the remainder of the day working through problems and content with family members. The service is sometimes affectionately called “the biggest school in the world” considering “classrooms” consist of roughly only 120 students spread over 1.3 million square kilometers. “The Bachelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education has also utilised distance learning to service its Indigenous students,” notes Petronella Vaarzon-Morel, an anthropologist who teaches at NYU Sydney.

Petronella Vaarzon-MorelVaarzon-Morel was in the Northern Territory for field work at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, and was able to smoothly transition to delivering lectures online. Vaarzon-Morel notes that she has made the most of her situation of continuing classes remotely from the Northern Territory. She is planning a socially-distant, in-person Q and A at Charles Darwin University with anthropologist Dr. Lisa Stefannoff, an NYU alum, and NYU students via Zoom. Stefannoff has worked on Indigenous screen production, broadcasting, and community arts in Alice Springs for the last 15 years. Vaarzon-Morel also recently recorded an interview with senior lawyer David Avery from the Central Land Council, an Indigenous community organization that represents the Indigrous people in land issues. 

Fran Molloy, an NYU Sydney instructor for Environmental Journalism has been pre-recording one-on-one interviews with local experts to supplement her lecture material. 

“I have been fortunate that two journalists who wrote articles I had assigned as readings, were willing to speak to me on Zoom about how they wrote the story, what their challenges were, and even offer some tips for students who have feature articles coming up,” she says.

“Both writers live in distant parts of Australia so it would normally be tricky to get them into a classroom. It feels like the virtual classroom (despite its many disadvantages) has given us the opportunity to break down the distance barrier.”

The class also had the opportunity to speak to leading water scientist Bradley Moggridge, whose work combining the traditional knowledge of his Aboriginal ancestors with western science has been groundbreaking in Australia.

San Souci Community GardemNYU Sydney has also hosted online field trips, with one class having a virtual tour of traditional aboriginal fish traps. Molloy recently organised a socially-distant personal video tour of a local community garden, tailored for NYU Sydney students by the founder. A portion of Fran Molloy’s virtual field trip to the San Souci Community Garden can be viewed via NYU Stream here.

Marcus Neeld, Assistant Director of Student Life at NYU Sydney has also worked at continuing to maintain community beyond the classroom. “Strong relationships between staff and students have been the hallmark of the NYU Sydney experience,” he says. 

“Our team has been challenged to maintain these relationships with students across multiple time zones. As we transitioned to remote learning, our team has been available to provide consistent individualized support. More broadly, we have moved our programming online, replacing previously familiar in-person meeting places with virtual meeting rooms and online hangout spaces. We have introduced relaxation programming and we regularly host friendly virtual competitions and opportunities for students to share with us their homes, pets, hobbies, and study spaces. NYU Sydney’s Wellness Counsellor, Dr. Lauren Stahl continues to support students on an individual basis, and student leaders are encouraged to continue making their valuable contributions.”

Adapting the African City

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles
 

“What students are doing now ⁠— asking the subjects themselves to take part in creating a documentary ⁠— is their contribution to how the genre has been evolving since its inception in the early 1920s,” explains filmmaker Yahaya Alpha Suberu, a lecturer at NYU Accra. Instead of having films take the stance of a passive observer, “documentaries are now engaging the subjects, they are filming their own voices, and the collaborative process has changed between subject and documenter,” says Suberu.

In “Documenting the African City,” a course that has been offered at NYU Accra since its establishment 15 years ago, students learn how to tell stories using the language of film. The class is open to all students, regardless of their discipline — a background in film is not required — and helps students discover more about the city during the process of shooting short pieces, recording sound, and editing their work. “The topics of their documentaries,” said Suberu, “are as varied as NYU’s diversity. Music, religion, race, politics, transportation, education, gender, sexuality, streetism, commerce, health, dance, tradition, the list goes on and on.” 

“Usually by mid-semester students have all the basic skills for pre-production, production, and post-production to finish five-minute individual or group projects. By the end of the semester they would have honed their skills and produced a longer documentary which is about ten minutes in duration.” The longer documentaries are screened outdoors in Accra to an audience from NYU Accra and the surrounding community.

My students have adapted in their learning process as much as I have in my pedagogy. They have had to quickly learn to shoot and record sound using their smartphones, and they also learned to engage their subjects by making them a part of the documentary process. Yahaya Alpha Suberu

However, this spring presented a set of unique challenges, as NYU Accra, like the rest of NYU’s campuses and academic centers, was forced to suspend in-person operations due to the COVID-19 virus, and the cohort found themselves in a range of unexpected locations. “Some were in quarantine in their home countries, some at a place that was a ‘stopover’ or a place that was not home,” said Suberu. In response, the entire structure of the course had to be reshaped and the course’s focal point on Accra also had to adapt given that most of the cohort was no longer in Africa.

How exactly did Suberu adapt his instruction for a course that is typically very hands on, particularly in the locational aspect of the documentaries and the use of NYU Accra’s on-site film equipment and editing suite? And how did he support the continuity of a course that requires a high level of focused creativity in the midst of the chaos and stress? 

As he adapted how classes were conducted, spent time identifying short-format films that addressed the needs of the syllabus, and worked with students to expand their story themes beyond the city limits of Accra, Suberu found himself spending more time identifying resources and engaging with students online than in-person. “Even though class is over, I’m still doing research and communicating by email — when you end class, you are still on the screen, spending more time there than one usually would in more familiar circumstances. And along with the move from campus to computer, there has been a shift in how we think about time in terms of teaching and student engagement.”

“My students have adapted in their learning process as much as I have in my pedagogy. They have had to quickly learn to shoot and record sound using their smartphones, and they also learned to engage their subjects by making them a part of the documentary process. For instance, one student wanted to interview an individual in Accra, so the subject filmed herself and sent the footage to the student. Another documented the journey of a friend from NYU New York who travelled back home to China, and self-recorded the experience of being in quarantine.” 

Interestingly, the class produced films that have taken a timely look at different angles of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Suberu. “One student’s dad works in virology and he was able to tie his dad’s work into a story that was driven by his interest in biological warfare. Along similar lines, another student investigated how her mom is taking care of herself as a front-line medical worker.” 

The final projects from the course will be screened online on May 15th to a public audience. Open to 300 participants via Zoom, Suberu says “it will be quite fascinating to see how many viewers tune in from all over the world.”

 
 
 
 
 

NYU Los Angles Launches Inaugural Discovery Sessions

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles

Next month, NYU Los Angeles will be launching a series of talks and presentations for NYU alumni, led by industry experts who will cover a range of topics in media and entertainment. The Summer 2020 Discovery Sessions will launch Monday, June 1, and are geared towards professionals looking to expand their knowledge base and community in highly specialized arenas. 

The series will debut with two free special webinars (information below), that are “being offered in the spirit of creating community and opportunity to the entire NYU community,” said NYU Los Angeles Program Director Nina Sadowsky, who created the Discovery Sessions. In addition, two spots in each of the series’ paid sessions will be offered free of charge to applicants who have been laid off or furloughed due to the COVID-19 virus. More information on these scholarships is available here. 

The Business: Snapshots of the Current Media and Entertainment Landscape from the Professionals Who Run It 

Monday, June 1 • 3pm PDT/6pm EDT

Through a series of TEDTalk-style presentations, participants will learn how organizations are responding to the unfolding economic challenges presented by COVID-19. Professionals in fields ranging from film, television, music, podcasting and more, will share their perspective on how the business has shifted and their outlook for the near future.

This event is produced in collaboration with NYU LA, the NYU Production Lab, the Wasserman Center for Career Development, and the Tisch Office of Career Development.

Career Strategies for Creatives

Wednesday, June 3 • 3pm PDT/6pm EDT

What is it like to start your career in the middle of an economic downturn? What strategies can you employ to stay productive, build your network and continue to pursue your creative passions? This special panel composed of Tisch grads that entered the workforce during the 2008/2009 recession will share their experiences and expertise in pursuing a career in the arts despite a difficult economic climate. Panelists will include representatives from different areas of the industry.

This event is produced in collaboration with NYU LA and NYU Tisch.

Download (PDF) the session brochure and schedule  below.

NYU London, Tisch, and RADA Modernize Shakespeare in a Virtual Performance

Posted on , modified on by Martha J Bekink

students actingNYU London’s intensive Shakespeare in Performance course involves sixteen actors who audition for their places and who train at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). The course, part of a long-standing partnership between NYU London, Tisch, and RADA, always concludes with the performance of a Shakespeare play. When COVID-19 necessitated the move to distance learning, both students and instructors were determined that the show must go on.

In a normal semester, the students train at RADA for full days on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays throughout the term. The training culminates in two full-time weeks of rehearsals and a final performance of the Shakespeare play. This final performance is always organised such that students share roles so that each actor has approximately the same number of lines and stage time. It is usually an intense and intimate experience.

Course Director Geoff Bullen, in collaboration with his RADA colleagues, has chosen to see this forced change of approach as an opportunity to experiment. This year, RADA’s Gary Lagden, whom Geoff calls  “an exceptional teacher / director,” with whom only half of the students had a chance to work with before NYU London closed, will direct an abridged Coriolanus, tailored to video. According to Geoff, “The plan is to take advantage of the format (and its inevitable unevenness) and have the play be devised as a kind of samizdat, an underground or revolutionary kind of action, but still with a keen focus on language, imagery, and delivery. It could be ideal for editing into a showcase.” The virtual performance will be delivered via NYU Zoom.

Instead of two weeks rehearsing together in person, the students will put the performance together over four days of intensive rehearsals. Director Gary Lagden is “really excited about this production.” Having never directed an online Shakespeare play before, he is enthusiastic about the challenge and looking forward to working with the students, saying “my mind has been wonderfully active with ideas.” The challenge, according to Gary, is to in four days create a performance of Coriolanus that “uses the voice as the tool of communication” with the actors “using their own vocality to create scene, mood and character.” He believes it will be both demanding and fun.

Meanwhile, before the rehearsals commence, the training classes that provide the foundation for this final performance are underway. Students in this course are taking on Shakespeare together from around the world. RADA tutor Adrienne Thomas has been very impressed with how constructively the students are working, saying, “I’ve been happily reminded of what a delightful group they are, supportive, bright and imaginative with a real commitment to the work.” She has also seen improvements in their work as they develop their connection to language through breath, body and voice. Although not anticipated, she and others are finding the virtual learning a meaningful experience. “I’m very moved at our ability to communicate over these great distances and at this difficult time. Long may we continue to explore what we share as human beings and what unites us, through the medium of Shakespeare’s wonderful language.”

Marie Kallis, a Tisch junior majoring in Drama, has found the transition to remote learning “fairly smooth” and also inspiring. Marie had known she wanted to study at RADA since she was a freshman because she “adores Shakespeare” and was “really eager to study his worth with the RADA faculty.” Having been looking forward to the experience for so long, Marie was disappointed when she had to leave London but has found the NYU London and RADA teams “have done an excellent job putting together a course for us online and my classmates have continued to stay motivated and engaged, which is such a positive energy and outlook to have.” Although “studying acting is super challenging over Zoom because it primarily relies on being present with your partner(s)”, there have been some opportunities presented by remote learning. Marie appreciates the many individual tutorials, which she finds “immensely beneficial.”In addition, they have found ways to continue some classes that would seem impossible over Zoom, including a Physical Performance class.

Zoom classMarie feels that remote learning has provided some unique learning opportunities: I have definitely acquired some tools and techniques that I’ll carry throughout my work. For example, in our physical performance class, it’s been so freeing to not be able to see my classmates or myself on the screen. I feel the freedom to move without ever worrying about if what I’m doing is “incorrect” based on what other people in the class are doing.”And, during our presentations, Zoom made it possible for me to feel like my scene partner and I were the only two in the room, as we couldn’t see the rest of the faculty. And, that’s how it should always feel – feeling present in the moment with who is on stage with you and having an awareness that the audience is there, but throwing all the judgement and the feeling like you’re being “watched” out the window. 

All are optimistic that the course work will pay off. As the training continues and preparations for the final performance commence, Director Gary Lagden is hoping to explore theatrical truth through the screen. “The glory of this new digital restriction being mined and exploited to create a creative constraint that can achieve a true synthesis of performer and sound. This production will be in close up. It will be necessarily low tech and edgy. It will aim for truth and transformation. The wonderful work that the actors have undertaken with the RADA tutors now being the foundation of this performance.”

Marie is similarly enthusiastic about the online production. The final show is something all the students look forward to, so she was “thrilled” to learn it would go forward and finds it “really thoughtful of our faculty to make this possible for us.” Although it has “definitely been an adjustment to perform via the camera and work out all the technical kinks that come with an online production,” Marie is grateful to work with “an amazing director” who is Gary Lagden, who we were all so excited to work with again. He is “really making this process worthwhile.”

Understanding the challenges of an online performance, Geoff and Gary and the students have chosen to embrace the challenge and not aim for perfection in this unique, shared event. They will celebrate the happy accidents in performance and technical blips. Gary’s vision is that, “We will work together to tell this tale; we will challenge ourselves to be present and heroic in action.”

Science Boot Camp: NYU Paris Students Hit the Ground Running

Posted on , modified on by Chelsea Robles

Enlarge

HPC

Photo Source: https://acosse.github.io/NYUParisBootcamp/

In order to ensure that all NYU Paris (NYUP) students were beginning their math and computer studies with a similar foundation in the disciplines, NYUP Site Director Alfred Galichon, and professor of Economics and Mathematics at NYU in New York, oversaw the creation of a pre-semester “Science Bootcamp.”

“We really felt there was a need to level the playing field, and to make sure everybody – whether from the Abu Dhabi, New York, or Shanghai campuses – hits the ground running,” said Galichon.

Designed and taught by NYUP lecturers, Joachim Lebovits (Math) and Augustin Cosse (Computer Science), NYUP held its inaugural Science Bootcamp at the start of the Spring semester, outside of regular class hours. Enabling students to quickly find their footing, said Lebovits, “we wanted to make sure that everyone, whatever their background, is given the opportunity to acquire the necessary tools to get a good start in the actual course, instead of losing time catching up on some basic notions.” And after finding their footing, students were “able to more fully enjoy their semester from the get-go,” he said.

The development of the non-credit program was also underpinned by the premise that math and computer science are intrinsically linked, said Lebovits. “There can be no programming without algorithms, and a relatively complex calculation might benefit from some degree of coding. Unfortunately, a blackboard and a piece of chalk are not always enough anymore,” he said.

 “At the very least,” said Lebovits, “it serves as a refresher for the students already familiar with them. For some, it may be also a good way to test their interest in the field.” For instance, a Math major can become better acquainted with coding and may go on to delve more deeply into programming languages. “In any case, it will give them the means to look forward to their courses with confidence, in a maybe more relaxed atmosphere than when the semester has actually started. Indeed, students are encouraged to carry out group projects, which gives them the opportunity to meet their fellow students more easily than in a regular class.” Lebovits says he believes the camp also benefits the lecturers and teaching staff: “Since the math and computer science courses are taught jointly by two or three professors, it helps the students view us as a team, rather than a set of individuals.”

In addition to bolstering students’ academic grounding, the program also demonstrates the importance of transferable skills. For example,“the ‘Python programming’ session also gives students the opportunity to test their knowledge on some interview questions from the tech industry.” The idea was to develop a curriculum that would prepare students for future challenges, explained Cosse, “be it with their classes or future job interviews.”

Students may arrive in Paris with different academic backgrounds and come to the classroom with different tools at their disposal, and may also have unique histories with math or computer science, and students’ academic and career plans vary widely. (Lebovits notes that “last semester one of my students in Linear Algebra wanted to become an architect, while another intended to do research in Mathematics.) But regardless of their future plans, “both will benefit from this ability to use programming tools,” he said.  What the students all share, both Cosse and Lebovits remarked, is a strong motivation to deepen their skill set – and this brought them to bootcamp outside of regular class hours and on weekends. 

While the bootcamp was designed at the outset to be classroom-based, Lebovits pointed out that it would translate easily into a distance learning environment. “The light and interactive format would be very well suited to a remote version and thus to our current situation. Considering the unprecedented changes that have taken place due to COVID-19, I think that we are increasingly going to need to create new ways of teaching to be able to adapt to student’s needs, whatever their background and regardless of their location.”

More information about the course can be found on Cosse’s website here.