A small fraction of UC Davis classes—about 100—are meeting in person this spring. What’s the return to in-person learning like, a year after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the switch to remote education? Today we talk with instructor Dr. Andy Jones, whose outdoor writing course is one of the 100, about how he’s conducting the class, what students are telling him, some changes that might outlast the pandemic, and other insights from the past year.

Jones has taught at UC Davis since 1990. He’s also a leader in academic tech on campus, plus you might know him as the quizmaster at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (temporarily closed because of the pandemic) and as a former Davis poet laureate.