Teaching Face to Face in the Pandemic - The First 3 Weeks

It has been exciting, and quite interesting, to be back to teaching face to face at UMass Amherst in the pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, I was on sabbatical for that spring term, and, hence, was not teaching.

Last academic year the instruction was done remotely, except for a few classes at the Isenberg School of Management. Hence, I taught all my courses in the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 remotely via Zoom. It was a novel experience, especially since I had never taught online before. With the right technology, coupled with a lot of energy and creativity, the courses actually worked out quite well. A big plus was being able to host remarkable guest speakers, who are top professionals, in classes (and the speakers did not have to travel but could Zoom in even from Europe). 

The students regularly showed up to my Zoom office hours and I got to know many of them as individuals. Quite a few continue to stay in touch, even though they have now graduated!

UMass Amherst has a vaccination mandate (with exceptions for medical and religious reasons) for students, faculty, and staff, so that has provided some reassurance even with the Delta variant. Of course, there are still hundreds who are not vaccinated.

Also, UMass Amherst has a mask mandate inside buildings and students have to be masked in classes (although, strangely, faculty do not, and this has been bothering me a lot but this policy, to date, has not been changed). I am teaching with an N95 mask my Transportation and Logistics course.

It is very clear to me that students are glad that the instruction is now face to face. The first two lectures (I have now taught for three weeks) I reminded the students that the masks must be worn so that they cover their noses and mouths. If a student needs to drink, then the student should leave the classroom, and do so outside the room. The students have been truly wonderful at complying. They care about the health and safety of all and doing their best so that we can continue to have the university open and classes conducted in person.

Some features of  "remote" learning remain, which are actually positives. Assignments, lecture notes, and homeworks are all posted on Blackboard. This saves paper and the environment and the grades are easy to calculate but the "marking" of the homeworks can be challenging since it is much easier to write on paper. The students have gotten used to submitting homeworks online and this positive feature remains.

Also, and this is also advantageous pedagogically, when we were teaching (and learning) via Zoom, the classes were recorded and I would post the videos on Blackboard. Students, could then go back to review the material. This feature was very convenient and helpful.

Now, each of my classes (I had to have a classroom switch, due to several issues, including broken windows and technology that did not work) is recorded via Echo 360. I post the videos of the classes on Blackboard. Last year, I taught synchronously on Zoom and I liked the fact that we had a set schedule, which provided a nice rhythm to the week with the class meetings and also office hours. The students very much appreciated that the classes were "live" and not prerecorded (asynchronous teaching and learning).

I emphasize to the students that they must let me know if they will be missing a class and that is certainly happening in the pandemic. Having recordings of class meetings helps, but being healthy and in class is the best. The courses I teach are quite technical and having students ask questions while the class is in session can save a lot of time and enhances learning. 

I make sure that a window is open and the door to the classroom as well for ventilation since a layered approach to minimizing risk and contagion is important. Even the vaccinated can transmit the Delta variant so one has to be very careful.

So far, the teaching in person experience (once I got a new classroom) has been enjoyable and rewarding, despite it being the pandemic. 

I receive many "Thank you!s" after each class, which makes my day. I hope to instill the passion that I have for the subject in my students.

I am sure that this semester will bring new challenges, but, so far, I am feeling, more or less, "safe" and I love teaching my Transportation and Logistics class and interacting with the students in person.

Now, if only my PhD student had gotten his visa in time, so that he could be my TA. He is scheduled to arrive now in Spring 2020.

Our Research on the Inclusion of Labor into Supply Chain Networks

On this Labor Day, September 6, 2021, I thought it appropriate to write this blogpost in celebration of labor in the pandemic. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has vividly and dramatically shown the importance of keeping our workers healthy and safe in all sectors of the economy from agriculture to healthcare. Many worked tirelessly and some suffered tremendously to ensure that products were produced, transported, and then consumed. Essential workers have become our heroes from farmers and food processors to freight service providers, including truckers, to healthcare workers, educators, and many others. 

During the pandemic, I have been researching how to include labor into supply chain networks so that disruptions could be better quantified, appropriate wages identified, and, even more recently, how firms should invest in enhancing the productivity of their workers through enhanced health and safety measures. This research continues and has become a great passion of mine.

I am pleased that three papers of mine on the inclusion of labor have now been published. The first paper, "Perishable Food Supply Chain Networks with Labor in the Covid-19 Pandemic," was published in the edited volume: Dynamics of Disasters - Impact, Risk, Resilience, and Solutions, I.S. Kotsireas, A. Nagurney, P.M. Pardalos, and A. Tsokas, Editors, Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2021,  pp. 173-193. A prepint of it can be downloaded here.

The second paper, "Optimization of Supply Chain Networks with Inclusion of Labor: Applications to Covid-19 Pandemic Disruptions (2021),  was published in the International Journal of Production Economics, 235, 108080.

This IJPE paper continues to be among the most downloaded from the journal website over the past couple of months, which demonstrates the interest in this topic. This paper focused on the healthcare product supply chains, including PPEs.

The above two papers are optimization models and capture different types of constraints on labor availability. 

My paper, "Supply Chain Game Theory Network Modeling Under Labor Constraints: Applications to the Covid- 19 Pandemic (2021), was published in the European Journal of Operational Research, 293(3), 880-891. It proposes a series of game theory models in which competition for labor by firms is also considered. This is something that we are seeing in the COVID-19 pandemic, which has different sectors suffering from labor shortages. 

I was greatly honored that the Editors of this journal selected this paper of mine for an Editors' Choice Award and the publisher has made the paper available for free from the journal website.

I have also spoken at multiple conferences about this research; most recently, at the MOPTA Conference organized by Lehigh University, which I enjoyed very much. The title of my plenary talk at MOPTA was: "Labor and Supply Chain Networks: Insights from Models Inspired by the COVID-19 Pandemic."

The full slide deck of  my plenary talk can be downloaded here.

The above papers all acknowledge and thank essential workers. And, today, I extend my gratitude to laborers world-wide.