Meat+Poultry - October 2020 - 100

FROM THE CORRAL

Virtual learning realities
Moving to a virtual world in the
middle of March was a big learning
experience. Prior to COVID-19, I was
traveling 85% of the time and flying to
as many as three different airports each
week. Since the middle of March, all
my travel for both in-person speaking
or consulting has been cancelled and
many of the events became virtual.
During spring break, I had one
week to get my livestock handling
class online. I quickly learned what
works and what does not work. On
systems such as Zoom and Microsoft
Teams it is easy to facilitate plenty of
questions. Both students and industry
people are often intimidated to verbally
ask a question, but they are much
more willing to type questions. In my
own class, I have found that prerecorded lectures should be viewed as
homework and the class period should
be reserved for discussion. When I do
a live lecture online, I often stop to
answer the questions that I see in the
chat feed. This helps keep the attention
of viewers.
I have participated in some very
successful international virtual sessions
in both animal welfare and autism.
Zoom software now makes it possible
to do simultaneous translation. I have

participated in conferences originating
from England, Ireland and South
America on Zoom. This is the good
side of virtual. It enables much wider
distribution of content.
Collette Kaster, who manages
the Professional Animal Auditors
Certification Organization (PAACO),
was pleased with the first PAACO
virtual poultry auditor training program
held recently. There were participants
from all around the world. It is also
possible to have a greater number
of participants in each class. For the
tours, they showed videos of different
laying hen and broiler operations.
Organizers of scientific conferences
have also found that their abstracts,
posters and seminars have had wider
reach virtually. I have also had the
opportunity to troubleshoot some
handling and stunning problems via
video conferences. In both cases, we
were able to solve the problems. One
advantage when discussing a stunning
issue was that it was possible to play a
video clip over and over.
There are also many downsides to
not having in-person meetings. The
thing I miss the most is all the informal
conversations with colleagues both at
the university and in the industry. Many
other people I have talked to share
my opinion.
Fortunately, the meat industry
was considered essential which kept
our meat lab running at Colorado
State University. This was also true

for many other universities. For
other hands-on classes, video does
not completely replace experiences.
There is no way to teach calving cows
online. Unfortunately, many hands-on
classes were cancelled. This has been
a disappointment for many students.
CSU is doing many small classes
in person, but all the large classes
are online.
I predict that after a COVID-19
vaccine becomes available, there may
be less travel for conferences, business
meetings and sales calls. Many people
who can do their jobs at home are not
eager to return full-time to the office.
It is likely that many companies will
adopt a hybrid model with some days
at the office. People are social and
they need to interact with each other.
This helps explain why many recent
outbreaks of COVID-19 have been
traced back to large parties. It is human
nature to hang out with other people.
T E M P L E G R A N D I N | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d .c o m

100

MEAT+ POULTRY | 10.20 | www.meatpoultry.com

Colorado State University, stock.adobe.com

I predict that after a COVID-19
vaccine becomes available, there
may be less travel for conferences,
business meetings and sales calls.
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Meat+Poultry - October 2020

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