Abstract:

As Director of the Language Resource Center at Mount Holyoke College, I am extremely proud of the welcoming, interactive, and stimulating atmosphere that I have created in our space. When COVID hit and all learning and teaching went remote, I was faced with the challenge of keeping our center present in the minds of our students, faculty, and staff who were no longer on campus. The sense of community that is vital to our center and our campus was in jeopardy. As students and faculty yearned for a connection to their usual spaces and peoples, I needed to invent ways to make that happen in a remote and virtual world. Armed with several technological tools, from simple Google documents to our Learning Management System, Moodle, to more interactive tools such as Flipgrid and Perusall, I organized several activities and events to keep our community engaged. This presentation will showcase the types of events and activities that I created using different tools to encourage interaction and engagement amongst students, faculty, and staff. I will explain in detail the creation process and objectives of each example which range from interactive social media posts, international recipe swaps, video show and tells, trivia games, and cultural experience zoom episodes. The types of activities varied depending on the audience and delivery preferences for asynchronous versus synchronous. The overall reception and participation for these activities proved to be very positive. Certainly, some probably would not have even taken place if we had not been forced into this remote world. While nothing takes the place of in-person, human contact, and interaction, our campus community found these activities and events to be enjoyable and a new way to share experiences and often, to learn something new. The plan now is to build upon these activities and develop them so that, when appropriate and we are allowed to gather again, we can share in person what we began remotely during these most difficult times. Not all the events and activities lend themselves to in-person gatherings, but those that do will help us reconnect with each other and return to our usual warm, welcoming, and engaging environment.

Keywords:

Language, center, student, faculty, staff, community, engagement, technology, activities, interactive, remote.