For Scantlebury, his approach to connecting with students ranges from
the before-class music to simply checking in with them. He strives to
find ways to keep positive interaction with students in an online setting.
One avenue for that interaction emerged through the course content,
which deeply explores heritage tourism. He described one discussion
about culture and food in which students talked about their own
personal culinary cultural traditions passed through generations.
"I'm trying to intently reach out to them and connect them to
the material in a much more personal way," Scantlebury said.
A key feature in online pedagogy for Scantlebury is interspersing
class discussions with short videos to help enhance what students are learning.
Recently he took students around the world, sharing his experiences
from the Aruba Carnival to Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead,
celebrations in San Francisco while also showing videos to help spur
discussion. While he has plenty of stories from working in the travel
and tourism industry since 1985, he said he knows the videos also help
keep students engaged in the online setting by breaking up the lecture.
He said he is grateful for professional development he has received
through Grand Valley to explore ways of compressing extensive ideas
when presenting material.
While Scantlebury laments that he won't be able to hold his customary
semester-culminating events, complete with food, he said it is always
fulfilling to see students' academic growth.
"What I recognize is that students get so close to the material,
they don’t recognize how much they’re learning," he said.
