Adjustments made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in lasting teaching improvements were the topic of a recent “MTSU On the Record” radio program.

Dr. Rebecca Fischer

Gina K. Logue

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Rebecca Fischer, a professor of communication disorders and coordinator of the Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Program, first aired Aug. 17 on WMOT-FM Roots Radio 89.5 and www.wmot.org.

You can listen to their conversation via the SoundCloud link above.

Fischer divided her fall 2020 and spring 2021 lab classes in half, holding one on Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays.

One lab’s students would use audiometers, which are machines used to measure hearing ability, while the other worked on a different assignment, and vice versa. This was a way to avoid multiple students sharing audiometers.

A technique Fischer used to help maintain pandemic protocols in phonetics classes was to put a list of 20 words in a different universal alphabet on a sheet of paper with the phonetically correct pronunciations on the back.

Fischer created videos in which she said the words correctly. The students could view the videos on digital devices at their leisure and check their responses.

This kind of ingenuity also enabled Fischer to continue welcoming clients to the clinic where speech-language pathology and audiology majors obtain practical experience.

“I know a lot of clinics that had to close down, and I really am just very proud of our faculty, our students and our clients that we were able to keep the clinic open,” Fischer said.

The SLPA program is administered through the Department of Health and Human Performance in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences.

To hear previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, visit the searchable “Audio Clips” archives at www.mtsunews.com.

For more information about the radio program, contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.