Tag: Spring 2020

Hot Topics

Communicate and Connect: Improving Online Teaching during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Perhaps the only good thing about my experience of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has been improving my online teaching. I teach Technical & Business Writing, First-year Composition, and Corequisite Developmental Writing courses. I have previously been successful with my online teaching because I communicate regularly with my students. Most importantly, I comment thoroughly on the rough drafts and the final drafts. I am a prompt responder to all emails. I also acknowledge the strengths of the discussion forum postings with “likes” and/or explicit comments on their postings. This emphasis on communication keeps students engaged and moving forward throughout the semester. Continue reading Communicate and Connect: Improving Online Teaching during the Coronavirus Pandemic

ABCWest.org
Organizational Focus

How Nonprofit Organizations Are Communicating Through the COVID-19 Disaster

The current COVID-19 pandemic represents something unimaginable a few months ago, except to disaster planners and infectious disease experts. Public discourse about the disaster has focused predominately on the for-profit and governmental sectors, hardly touching on how nonprofit organizations are coping with the fallout of the pandemic. Given the disparity, I sought to find out how public charities in my region are coping, including their communication efforts. The Greater Sacramento Area is a seven-county region in Northern California that includes both urban and rural populations. The region houses the state capital (in Sacramento). Because of its diversity, the region is a good bellwether for the nonprofit sector in the state, which is also at the leading edge of the nonprofit sector. Continue reading How Nonprofit Organizations Are Communicating Through the COVID-19 Disaster

ABCWest.org
Moving The Needle

What Happens to Global Virtual Teams When a Pandemic Hits? Maintaining Normalcy and Stability with Disruption All Around

Each year, the Virtual Business Professional (VBP) program brings together professors and students from across the globe to engage in client projects. The VBP program of 2020 occurred from the beginning of March through the middle of April. In this article, we share how the COVID-19 pandemic affected VBP participants and their teams. We present post-project survey results (completed by 440 of 530 participants for an 83 percent response rate), professor comments, and student comments to demonstrate how VBP participants overcame many of the pandemic disruptions to work effectively in virtual teams, develop compassion and empathy for one another, and foster more global mindsets. Continue reading What Happens to Global Virtual Teams When a Pandemic Hits? Maintaining Normalcy and Stability with Disruption All Around

ABCWest.org