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Andrey Malenko joins Michigan Ross from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. BC photo

For Andrey Malenko, teaching remotely this fall is a new experience. Malenko, who joined the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan as an associate professor of finance, was at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management in March when coronavirus shut down the campus and sent all classes online.

But that happened after Malenko’s class had just concluded.

“I finished my class right before the school got shut down,” Malenko tells P&Q. “I had a half-semester MBA course in corporate finance at Carroll. My class just basically ended, so then we went into spring break and I think the school shut down like a week after the spring break.

“That said, it’s great to learn new skills. Honestly, I’m used to teaching in-person, and I like doing that a lot. If I teach remotely, I will do my best to deliver a great class remotely, and I will make some adjustments to have the learning experience better fit the remote format. And, I think it will be good to learn new skills.”

Prior to Carroll, Malenko taught finance for eight years at MIT Sloan. While his Ph.D. from Stanford is in finance, he has two economics degrees as well.

It’s not the ideal time to switch schools, to uproot and start anew, he acknowledges. But nothing about the coronavirus era is ideal for anyone, he adds. And it helps that Michigan Ross has faculty with years’ experience in remote delivery through the school’s part-time online MBA program.

“It’s not a normal time for anybody, for existing faculty members or for new faculty,” Malenko says. “There are challenges. Since most of the meetings are over Zoom, you cannot really like, knock on your colleague’s door and ask something. There is all kinds of additional formality — like scheduling a meeting is more of a formality now.

“But everybody’s in the same position figuring out how to teach class in the new environment, whether it’s hybrid or remote. So I’m probably in the same position as my colleagues who have been around for a long time. And if you think how higher education will be delivered 30 years from now, for sure some remote learning formats are going to be part of that. No doubt. So why not make this investment right now?”