COVID-19 and the UMass Lowell College Student Experience

In the spring 2020 semester, undergraduates enrolled in Professor Vinson’s Visual Rhetoric course maintained a blog all semester devoted to discussing theories of how visuals work as means of communication. We had lively and engaging conversations in the comment thread, ranging from debates over copyright infringement and representations of women to passionate reflections on the ethics of quantitative claims and racialized binaries reproduced in everyday media.

In this concluding blog post, we are showcasing our final projects of the course. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the series of closures and other physical distancing measures that developed to combat it, Professor Vinson asked students to use a platform called Adobe Spark to create multimodal Web pages that document and communicate something about the college student experience in this uncertain time. 

Figure 1: Screenshot of Professor Vinson's Adobe Spark page announcing final assignment

Students were challenged to use everything they learned this semester—about color, typography, photo composition, photo editing, copyright, captions, connotative meanings, and the varied relationships between words and images—to create a coherent and engaging message.

I encourage you, dear reader, to take the time to review these pages and glean what you can from the smart, creative, and deeply critical thinkers that are the students of UMass Lowell’s Visual Rhetoric course:

• Evelis Cruz’s “Two Worlds Colliding in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Academy and Family Responsibilities” https://spark.adobe.com/page/qjmPVqO0uBKYq/ 
• Genevieve Burke’s “COVID-19 and College Students Dealing with Mental Illness” https://spark.adobe.com/page/TOG6dcnn6dMcv/ 
• Tyler White’s “Staying Positive During a Pandemic” https://spark.adobe.com/page/FfbeborF39Cto/ 
• Mariella Mendez’s “Death through my Eyes What I Learned as a Funeral Director’s Daughter” https://spark.adobe.com/page/0XA2y9aiS0TwP/ 
• Deanna Darah’s “Can't Spell ‘Pandemic’ Without ‘Panic’” https://spark.adobe.com/page/oHv2K2eTE473i/ 
• Julia Ashley’s “Finding Balance in the Midst of a Pandemic” https://spark.adobe.com/page/ozRrst98fo4Ye/ 
• Abigail Dwyer’s “Coping Methods: An Exploration of My mental Health During Quarantine” https://spark.adobe.com/page/4Gh05C71w87Y1/ 
• Michael Parke’s “My Journey through COVID-19” https://spark.adobe.com/page/BPpAJAiOA2irm/ 
• Kacey Corbett’s “Staying Connected to Ourselves During a Pandemic” https://spark.adobe.com/page/wzDTU3Rx0uwKM/ 
• Rebecca Primak’s “Shelter-in-Place: One College Senior's Experience as Coronavirus Took Hold of the World” https://spark.adobe.com/page/dJUM36w30YuxZ/ 
• Jontrell Murray’s “GO BEYOND:Plus Ultra!” https://spark.adobe.com/page/5G2oJ7IcsCS4H/  
• Lauren McLean’s “The ‘New Normal’ Finding a New State of Calm Amidst a Pandemic” https://spark.adobe.com/page/val7k5j4ZnhHf/
• Cyle Hairston’s “COVID-19 VS Education: Life as a Student During a Pandemic” https://spark.adobe.com/page/5fBmX7zTKstBf/
• Emily Teague’s “Creativity, Connection, and Control: Emily's Search for Control in the Coronavirus Pandemic” https://spark.adobe.com/page/OSjO63mxwAggB/

• Peter Lavina’s "...in these Uncertain Times..." A Perspective on Recent Changes” https://spark.adobe.com/page/arqtUZWysheQv/