Remote Learning Grants Overview

Given the challenges of the 2020-2021 academic year, a consortium of Centers and Institutes offered funding for proposals that cultivated student engagement and enhanced the online learning experience for Columbia students and instructors. As many universities and colleges grappled with the reality of online and hybrid instruction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members, teaching assistants, instructors, and students prepared to learn and teach in unprecedented ways. Structuring engaging online or hybrid courses is not a simple task. For more information, please visit the 2020-2021 Call for Applications

This program was developed by: 

2020-2021 Grant Awardees

  • Grant Awardees: Joel van de Sande (Graduate Student in Anthropology) and Gustav Kalm (Graduate Student in Anthropology)
  • Course Instructor: Terence N. D'Altroy (Loubat Professor of American Archaeology)
  • Building upon the interest of the students enrolled in the course, funds were used to support guest speakers who are experts in Egyptian heritage.
  • Both speakers discussed ideas of preservation and restitution of ancient artifacts. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Shyanne Figueroa Bennett (Teaching Fellow in Writing)
  • Poets from marginalized backgrounds are often dismissed. Funds supported guest speakers Cyrée Jarelle Johnson and Nada Faris. 
  • Students read works by Johnson and Farris prior to the conversations and the authors led students through a writing activity.
  • Grant Awardee: Miguel Ángel Garrido (Graduate Student in Statistics) 
  • Course Instructor: David Rios (Adjunct Assistant Professor of Statistics)
  • Funds were used to create interactive statistics calculators that allowed students to explore different statistical concepts regardless of previous coding background. 
  • Students used calculators to investigate the social determinants of health using medical, economic, and demographic data and applying modern data science tools.
  • For more information, please visit the interactive calculator website
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Rachel Adams (Professor of English and Comparative Literature)
  • Funds supported three guest speakers (each an author of a graphic novel on the course syllabus). 
  • Supported speakers were Susan Squier (The Graphic Medicine Manifesto), M.K Czerweic (Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371) and Ebony Flowers (Hot Comb)
  • Students studied graphic novels focused on experiences of health, disability, and illness. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Adam Poliak (Roman Family Teaching and Research Fellow at Barnard College)
  • Students learned how to use computational tools to analyze and discover insights from large amounts of text.
  • Funds supported two guest speakers who have developed interdisciplinary textual analysis tools. 
  • Supported speakers were Maria Antoniak and Lucy Li. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Tresa Kaur (Lecturer in Health Education at Teachers College)
  • Funds supported an optional book club, speaker series, and leadership project for students in two courses (Curriculum Development in Nursing Education and Innovations in Nursing Education) 
  • Students explored social determinants of health and presented their own research and reflections at the end of the semester. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Luca Abbattista (Graduate Student in Italian)
  • Funds were used to create "The Language of Pandemic Project." Students interviewed a museum curator, a member of Protezione Civile (the Italian emergency management department) and an entrepreneur who converted his business to manufacture face masks.
  • The curriculum incorporated medical language lessons and students discussed the effects of COVID-19 in Italian.
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Anayvelyse Allen-Mossman (Graduate Student in Latin American and Iberian Cultures)
  • Funds supported project materials as students created zines exploring historical and contemporary debates on monuments. 
  • Three guest speakers guided students in artistic, archival, and community-organizing skills, which students then shared with their home communities. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Courtney Bender (Associate Professor of Religion)
  • Funds supported a guest speaker from the New York Historical Society and a guided Zoom tour of the Guggenhiem Musuem. 
  • For their final product on sacred religious objects, students had the option to visit a museum. Local students have free access to most New York museums via Columbia. Funds were used to pay entry fees for students based elsewhere. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: Rachel Adams (Professor of English and Comparative Literature)
  • Funds supported studio activities hosted by cartoonist Whit Taylor and professor Sara Hendren. 
  • Students explored how the narrative and visual representation addressed illness and health disparities. 
  • Course Instructor/Grant Awardee: John Stratton Hawley (Claire Tow Professor of Religion at Barnard College)
  • Funds supported three guest speakers from the United States, Isreal, and India. 
  • Students created a final project exploring how, if at all, religion brings resources to meet climate change challenges. 
  • Grant Awardees: Monica Thieu (Course TA and Graduate Student in Psychology) and Caroline Marvin (Course Instructor and Lecturer in the Discipline of Psychology)
  • In this flipped course, students watched lecture videos before class, which were used for discussion and team project work. 
  • Funds were used to create mini-lecture videos featuring interviews with scholars, lawyers, and recent program alumni to help students consider how psychological research can be used to fight realoworld challenges.