Blended instruction

AWC adopts plans for return to campus this fall

Students returning to Arizona Western College this fall will encounter several safety-oriented changes to the way instruction is delivered as the campus follows its Fall 2020 Instruction Plan.

Following the plan, the majority of AWC’s on-campus courses will shift to a “blended real-time” format, in which faculty will be able to meet in person with rotating subsets of nine or fewer students while the rest of the class simultaneously participates via Zoom. According to the college, teams are currently equipping classrooms with cameras and microphones to make this possible.

The plan also includes online classes, which will remain the same as they have been in semesters past, and a remote realtime mode, in which technologies will be leveraged

to provide instruction in a completely remote yet synchronous setting.

“The remote real-time is all remote, no face-toface on campus, but the students would all log in at the same time and have a classroom experience remotely,” said Director of Communications and Marketing Mandy Heil. “We mostly just want to make sure that students know they have options, and even if they blended real-time, if they have a rotation and it’s their turn to come in person and they don’t feel comfortable, they can choose to still stay remote. That’s what we want to make sure students know: that if they don’t feel comfortable coming in person, they can still engage in the class.”

Some of the more handson departments and their labs, such as the career and technical education (CTE), fine and performing arts and lab sciences departments, will hold many of their classes in person while adhering to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to Dean of CTE Reetika Dhawan, the departments have been working with their faculty to develop resumption plans since courses shifted online in March.

“We’re in touch with CTE educators across Arizona; our state and national licensing bodies, who mandate how and when we instruct and test in many of these areas; and with our students, many of whom currently have an incomplete in their spring classes,” said Dhawan. “We need to help those students complete, and we need to continue to help create a skilled and trained workforce for Yuma and La Paz counties.”

According to AWC President Daniel Corr, nearly 80% of college faculty and staff participated in a survey about “returning to campus with face-to-face support” to help create the Fall 2020 Instruction Plan, while facilities leadership has worked to remain educated on current CDC guidelines.

“As we built this plan, we decided that if we focused on student and faculty choice in the way we rolled out classes, we would be empowering folks to be responsible to keep themselves and their classmates safe,” Corr said. “We can create all the safeguards we want but at the end of the day, we believe students and faculty want to take care of each other (and) want to stay safe.”

In addition to classes, the plan also devises ways to ensure social distancing in the Yuma campus housing. As Residence Life plans to reduce group housing environments to 50% capacity, students in double occupancy rooms will live in them as a single resident and share the suite’s bathroom, which in ordinary circumstances is built for four, with one other student. All communal spaces in campus housing will be

closed to further promote social distancing.

According to the college, neither housing nor tuition costs will be impacted by the plan.

Heil noted that this plan only outlines instructional modes, and that plans for returning to campus and reopening services prior to the first day of classes are still being developed. No target date has been set at this time, though Heil said it’s possible that the return could occur in phases rather than all at once.

“That information will hopefully come in the next couple of weeks,” Heil said. “That plan is still in the works.”

To further discuss and answer questions regarding the instruction plan, AWC is hosting a Facebook Live forum with Corr on June 17 at 2 p.m. The event will be viewable live and after its conclusion at www.facebook.com/ArizonaWesternCollege.

For further updates and information, www.azwestern.edu/covid.