Austin Peay professor strives for student success, even using Zoom in a closet at his house
(Posted April 16, 2020)
When Austin Peay State University moved spring classes online in response to the coronavirus crisis, Dr. Jiang Li not only had to move three classes online, he had to move his office into a closet at his house.
鈥淭he only thing where I鈥檓 struggling a little bit,鈥 Li said during a Zoom call from the closet as a child鈥檚 squeal pierced the air in the background, 鈥渋s I have my small, very confined space in this closet with these toys stuck behind me.鈥
Li, the graduate coordinator for APSU鈥檚 Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, isn鈥檛 the only professor in the house. His wife, Dr. Ling Wang, is Austin Peay鈥檚 coordinator for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and is teaching three classes for the Eriksson College of Education.
Li and Wang have the added challenge of keeping their now homebound 4-year-old twins, Kevin and Kerina Li, entertained during the work day. Kevin and Kerina鈥檚 preschool closed in response to the coronavirus crisis.
鈥淲e try to balance the time so we can take care of the kids and just find the time to put them to sleep, feed them, take them outside,鈥 Li said. 鈥淥ther than that, we鈥檙e just teaching online.鈥
鈥楳y kids will pop up鈥
The children present another challenge to Li: uninterrupted Zoom calls during the day with his graduate students.
鈥淚 usually have to meet with students after putting the kids to sleep after 8:30 p.m., although I have done a few during the day,鈥 Li said. 鈥淲hen the kids are running wild outside, they kind of interrupt me and I need to stop to calm them down or to find another activity for them.
鈥淪o, during the day, I told my students, it鈥檚 hard for me to schedule because my kids will pop up,鈥 Li added. 鈥淏ut after we put them to sleep, it鈥檚 pretty quiet, the whole house is quiet.鈥
Li said some of his Zoom sessions with his graduate students go from a scheduled half-hour to an hour and the sessions can last until midnight.
鈥淚t鈥檚 inspiring to see students making progress and their continued efforts to achieve their academic goal at Austin Peay,鈥 Li said.
鈥楾hey have the ability to succeed鈥
Li teaches three senior-level undergraduate classes and two graduate classes 鈥 data mining and a capstone system development class.
One of the senior classes and the data mining class already were online. Moving the other classes fully online was relatively seamless, and Li dusted off 70 instructional videos he made a few years ago to help in the data mining class.
鈥淲hen I set up my class, even though it鈥檚 face to face, I had all the components for the online teaching ready,鈥 he said.
Although some of the undergraduates have asked for project extensions, none of Li鈥檚 capstone or data mining students (about 20 students) have complained.
鈥淚 believe if they made it this far (capstone-level work), they have the ability to succeed,鈥 Li said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e already had some pretty tough classes.
鈥淚 know they have their own family issues, but they are very focused,鈥 he added.
To learn more
- To read more about Dr. Li and what he does at Austin Peay, go to .
- To learn more about the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology, visit /csci/.
- To learn more about the Eriksson College of Education and TESOL, visit /education/.
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