HUMBER BRINGS EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING ONLINE
Beyond investing in a range of collaboration tools, the college was first in Ontario to roll out Amazon’s AppStream 2.0 for instant access to desktop apps
Humber College Bachelor of Design student Sarah Saccomanno was creating a soft circuit as part of her third-year Critical Making and Experience Prototyping course. She had all the tools she needed and her instructor checked in on her to examine her work. But rather than the exchange taking place in a classroom, Soccomanno and her instructor were in completely different parts of the city, collaborating through an online 3D modelling program.
With many of Humber’s students learning virtually, Saccomanno’s experience is an example of how the college has reconfigured its programming for an online delivery that still creates opportunities for students and educators to have meaningful exchanges using various platforms and technology.
“Our degree and qualification is all about brainstorming, and the digital tools Humber has invested in really compensate for the fact that we aren’t on campus,” says Saccomanno of the Design program, which focuses on user experience (UX) design. “If we didn’t have those tools, we would have been left with readings and live lectures. But now we can still brainstorm over webcam, we can use Mirro for digital whiteboarding, we can still chat with teachers.”
Gina Antonacci is Humber’s associate vice-president of academic. In her role, Antonacci provides leadership to the college’s academic division, which included being involved in adapting programming when the pandemic hit. She says 80 per cent of Humber’s fall 2020 courses are being offered online and 20 per cent are face-to-face or a blended delivery. While six of the college’s fulltime programs have been deferred, in whole or in part, until January 2021, 60 per cent are fully online.
“While the principle we’ve been using is that everything that can be delivered online will be, we also understand that the college experience is very experiential and students miss face-to-face engagement,” she says.
“That’s why it was so important for us to find ways for students and their instructors to still collaborate and engage with each other. Through surveys, we’ve learned that when students had a positive experience in an online course, it was related to a positive experience with a faculty member.”
Beyond investing in a range of collaboration tools, Humber became the first Ontario postsecondary institution to implement Amazon’s AppStream 2.0. The fully managed application streaming service provides users instant access to desktop applications from anywhere. This means students can use their home computers to access much of the software they would typically encounter in a Humber computer lab.
“We’ve had more than 2,000 students launch over 10,000 sessions with this service,” says Antonacci. “COVID thrust us into a reality where we’ve had to move to be innovative, and I think we’ve responded. We’re always examining how we can further enhance the online experience.”
Humber’s innovation is also being demonstrated through its facilitation of virtual global experiences. This summer, for example, the college hosted a five-week Beyond COVID-19: Global Systems Gap Challenge. It saw 390 students from 27 countries collaborate in virtual teams of four to examine complex world problems using a systems thinking approach to identify possible paths to future solutions.
Humber faculty served as mentors and a panel of experts picked eight winning teams. In addition to being a huge success, Antonacci says she believes such opportunities and Humber’s overall approach to online engagement will result in students gaining a valuable skill set for an increasingly digital work landscape.
“While we’re focusing on meeting students’ needs, we also expect these experiences will enhance conflict resolution and communications skills and the ability to be adaptable,” she says.
Since the start of the fall semester, Saccomanno has had many opportunities to put such skills into practice. When she isn’t tinkering with digital soft circuits or attending her online Humber lectures, Saccomanno might be virtually exploring the streets of Osaka, Japan or learning Japanese design in her Zoom class at Kansai Gaidai University.
She’s currently participating in a virtual semester exchange as well as an intercultural engagement program that immerses her in local Japanese culture through videos, interactions with her Japanese counterparts and various online activities.
With Humber’s efforts to connect students both locally and globally, Saccomanno echoes Antonacci assessment of acquiring skills she may not have otherwise.
“I’ve grown a lot as a student and a person, and it’s shown me how adaptable I can be,” says Saccomanno of online learning. “The skills I’ve gained — time management, online etiquette and communication and even working from home — are transferable. I can bring them to any organization and it will be a huge asset.”
To learn more about Humber’s approach to online learning, visit humber.ca.
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