Students, faculty making adjustments to virtual college life
When the wave of pandemic hit Medicine Hat College two months ago, Veronica Yeoman was in the midst of an election campaign.
Already a parent and business program student, she was running for president of the student’s association. Posters were up but the vote hadn’t happened.
Her ability to transition online and win the election while dealing with a three-yearold running around the house in some ways mirrored what the college itself went through: organized chaos.
Now, the challenge for everyone is figuring out what’s next.
“Teachers were more than willing to help; it was tricky just learning a new style of learning,” said Yeoman.
“Moving forward, no one was prepared for it in March. So we’ve had the time to take a step back, regroup, plan for the upcoming semester. We’ll definitely be more prepared.”
The college plans to unveil a full slate of measures customized course-by-course in a month. That’s in addition to laying down a plan for the campus itself.
Meeting with all the different faculty groups has been part of the juggling act for Dr. Vicky Roy, the new vice president academic and provost for the college.
She started the job April 20 after a stint at British Columbia Institute of Technology, a tumultuous time to be sure.
“For the students it was just ‘we need to get there,’” said Roy, whose PhD in educational technology is coming in handy right now. “That was the case for us, for everybody around the planet.”
Roy meets with a different group each day, trying to figure out how best to deliver programs while maintaining things like physical distancing and mitigating the potential of COVID-19 spread. The provincial government came out with a set of guidelines for post-secondary institutions this week, but every course is different.
“Some programs are a little more easy, others you need to think about the blended format or are we going to postpone,” she said.
Medicine Hat College is labelling courses either green, yellow or red, depending on how readily they can be done remotely. Something like welding might be red, while a business or education course is more apt for the green designation.
Yeoman’s got experience with online classes already so she’s not too worried. But she is hearing from plenty of students who aren’t sure what to do.
“The biggest challenge I think for me is sitting back and waiting for the news,” said Yeoman. “I don’t know what to expect, I don’t know what to anticipate, I’m just waiting for the final decisions to be made.”
What Yeoman and the student’s association can do is start planning for things like virtual student orientation. Normally a heavily-social experience, they’re considering things like online party games, welcome videos and more to come together as a community early on.
“We usually do it face-to-face in September, however that’s going to have to change.”
But at least this time, they get to prepare for it and help shape what the new normal will look like.
“Albertans are very resilient,” said Roy, who worked at SAIT in Calgary for seven years and still teaches an online course through the University of Calgary. “Medicine Hat, as a city, they are resilient, too.
“It’s also important to see what we can do, look at the opportunity and how we can take the college to the next level to build new stories.