Alumnus Magazine | Summer 2020

Discoveries
supportive program, and I’m really happy to
be here and be a part of that.”
Morzuch, who’s in his third year at MSU,
teaches foundation courses in the Department
of Art, the state’s largest undergraduate
studio art program. This semester, he taught
Drawing I and Drawing II, studio-based
courses where students normally thrive on
face-to-face communication.
“I had never taught online before and
mistakenly thought that would be difficult
because it’s not ideal for these types of
courses, but this was a great opportunity to
figure out how to do it,” said Morzuch, an
observational painter who works primarily
with still life, landscape and self-portraiture.
Providing resources and immediate
feedback to his students was an initial concern
in making the move online, but Morzuch
said the Canvas learning management system
helped alleviate that obstacle.
“When students are working in the studio,
I’m there to guide them and answer questions
in the moment,” he said. “One of the ways I
kept that immediacy of feedback going was
to set up everything in Canvas. I was able to
make available all of the resources—lectures,
demonstrations, PowerPoints—for new
material we were covering, but students also
could look back at what we had covered
previously in our face-to-face instruction.
“Showing works on historical and
contemporary artists and examples of student
work that fit the goals and objectives of the
assignment helped,” Morzuch continued. “It
was hard, but I was able to set up my studio,
so I could talk through and videotape demos
for my students. I also asked them to send
examples—either through Canvas or email—
of their works in progress with specific
questions or issues, and I could give them the
feedback they needed that way too.”
Morzuch said teaching students how to
present and archive their work was another
upside of this online instruction experience.
“So much of what we do as artists and
designers is going to be viewed through
digital platforms, so I wanted to make sure
my students understood the importance of
documenting their work well with good light
and editing,” he said.
Student engagement was a top priority
for Morzuch, and he wanted to be especially
considerate of students’ varying circumstances
and capabilities. Along with connecting to
students individually, he enjoyed conducting
group Webex meetings to maintain the closeknit
feel of the normal classroom setting.
“Our art classes are great because they
are workshop environments where students
collaborate all of the time. Through
Webex, I was able to establish that sense of
community and reaffirm to the students
that we were in this together,” he said.
“Each class set up a GroupMe, so they could
“One of things I love about
being an art teacher is
teaching students how to
open their eyes to the world
around them, think for
themselves, communicate
and stand by the choices they
make in creating a work of art.
Especially in times like this
where so many people may be
feeling powerless, uninspired
or just unsure of what to do, I
think this experience was very
empowering for my students.”
~ Joe Morzuch
send examples, troubleshoot and critique
each other’s work. I think being able to lean
on each other was helpful.”
Morzuch said he was excited to see
his students’ unwavering commitment
to their studies in the face of uncertainty.
He’s confident the autonomy, resilience
and creative problem-solving skills they’ve
developed will serve them well throughout
their MSU experience and future careers.
“The students stayed as invested and
involved as they were at the start of the
semester, and that was pretty awesome to see,”
he said. “I think that speaks a lot about our
students here at State; they’re hard workers.
One of the big life lessons that college—and
an art or design degree in particular—teaches
you is the importance of looking at a situation
from different angles and being constructive in
finding solutions. I think this whole situation
has been a good lesson for that.”
Morzuch said he was pleased with his
students’ resilience and creativity, particularly
those in his Drawing II class. In the normal
studio setting, students create drawings of
still life scenes Morzuch assembles using
an assortment of objects collected by the
department. With the move to online
classes, students were tasked with doing both
independently. Many used objects found
around their homes and Morzuch said it was
neat to see the narratives they told through
their art.
“One student who loves horror movies put
objects together in a way that evoked the feel
of an old-time horror movie. Another student
did a colorful pastel drawing of party favors,
like a party hat, banner of letters and fingernail
polish. It was pretty cool,” Morzuch said.
“One of things I love about being an art
teacher is teaching students how to open
their eyes to the world around them, think
for themselves, communicate and stand by
the choices they make in creating a work
of art. Especially in times like this where
so many people may be feeling powerless,
uninspired or just unsure of what to do, I
think this experience was very empowering
for my students.”
Morzuch said he found empowerment
of his own through participation in Online
Teaching 101. Offered by MSU’s Center
for Teaching and Learning, the free, fourweek
training course introduces faculty
and teaching staff to the best practices of
online instruction. He said the course,
which is taught via Canvas, showed him
the pedagogical differences of working with
students in the same physical space versus
at a distance.
“Online teaching is about making
resources available, and this course is showing
me how my role changes in that kind of
learning environment,” he said. “I’m used
to taking a more hands-on, direct approach
in the studio, but teaching online classes
requires me to become more of a facilitator
and guide for my students. Learning to see
things from this new perspective has been a
great experience.” •
18 SUMMER 2020
Alumnus_Summer_2020.indd 18
7/31/20 1:48 PM