by Michael Colotti
As the global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus continues to spread across the world, many universities are temporarily closed. Students are taking online classes for the rest of the year. Claudia Bucciferro is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at RIT. She gives her thoughts about how the pandemic has affected her teaching and the community as well.
Bucciferro has taught at RIT for about two years. This year, she is teaching a new elective course called Decoding Movies: Superhero for a communication topic type class.
“I designed it last year,” Bucciferro said. “I wanted to create a course where we could engage deeply with a media artifact, approaching it from various perspectives. Superheroes are popular right now, but also have a long and rich history across various media platforms (comics, television, film), so they are great as an object of analysis. And there are lots of interesting scholarly articles written about them.” Bucciferro said.
For Bucciferro, she was quite eager to teach it and engage with students about their knowledge on the superhero genre. The pandemic caused disruptions to normal course instruction, something that was shocking to students and professors alike; Bucciferro was no exception. She believes however that RIT has handled the situation well.
“The whole situation with the pandemic is very worrisome, but I think RIT leadership has been very thoughtful in terms of how they have approached the transition. We are all missing the in-class conversations and the interaction with students and colleagues on campus, but I think we can look forward to a time when we can have that again,” said Bucciferro.
Transitioning Bucciferro’s class online was not difficult as most of the course material was online already to begin with. However, it is still not the same as being in person with her students.
“If I can send a message, it is this: Think big picture, project five or ten years into the future. Don’t lose sight of your big goals.”
Claudia Bucciferro
‘That said, being online reminds us of how much the classroom environment matters to the overall learning process. Studying the material on your own, without the in-class conversations, is not as engaging. We miss out on hearing about other students’ viewpoints and exploring questions together,” said Bucciferro.
Bucciferro herself has also engaged in issues of the pandemic outside of her teaching job. “My kids have no school, so we are all at home trying to do online work and taking breaks to walk and bike around the neighborhood. We all miss being able to go places and see friends,” said Bucciferro.
While that is something that Bucciferro’s family and herself has dealt with, she does reflect how the situation are worse for others affected by the global pandemic. “But we are also counting our blessings, as there are people in much more difficult situations right now. I consider myself lucky that I can work from home, as thousands of people are losing their jobs and the means to support their families,” said Bucciferro.
While students continue to study in their homes, that doesn’t mean that the situation has made things any easier for them as well. “I think RIT students are really resourceful and are great learners, so even though this is a difficult time, they are still doing good work. Students planning to graduate in May are probably the most affected, as the job market just got very tough. But trying times can also bring opportunities for growth and change. If I can send a message, it is this: Think big picture, project five or ten years into the future. Don’t lose sight of your big goals. RIT as an institution has that perspective, too,” said Bucciferro.
Bucciferro gives advice to students who are struggling while at home. “If I can send a message, it is this: Think big picture, project five or ten years into the future. Don’t lose sight of your big goals. RIT as an institution has that perspective, too,” said Bucciferro.
