ABSTRACT
COVID-19 created unplanned, fully remote educational spaces. One California community college tutor training program augmented their tutor training practices to pivot to meet the needs of students now confronted with fully online learning. Using a mixed-methodology approach (e.g., survey and focus groups/individual interviews) over the course of one year, this program attempted to identify successes and potential gaps in providing equitable online tutoring access and to investigate possible challenges in meeting student affective needs within new, fully online tutoring spaces. Findings indicated clear gaps in student knowledge about online tutoring services, a high level of affective satisfaction with online tutoring, and a demographic mismatch between the proportion of student groups who utilized tutoring services as compared to the proportion who responded to the survey. Ultimately, it was found that tutor training programs need to continue to update training practices to meet the needs of students in a post-COVID world.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: The main objective of this study was to explore students' experiences of the emergency virtual remote teaching, which was implemented as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: 439 students enrolled at a community college in Canada responded to a survey that had Likert-scale and open-ended questions. Anderson's model for online learning was used as an analytic lens to gain insight on student experiences. Descriptive statistics were used to make meaning of the data. Thematic analysis was done on student responses to open-ended questions. Results: Findings were organized according to Anderson's six factors in online teaching, namely: (a) Independent Study, (b) Peer, Family, & Professional Support, (c) Structured Learning Resources, (d) Community of Inquiry, (e) Communication, and (f) Paced, Collaborative Learning. The study revealed both challenges and opportunities that students experienced during their transition to emergency virtual remote learning. Conclusions: The invitation to students to share what worked--and what didn't--yielded a wealth of specific suggestions for engaging students, promoting accountability, and supporting collaborative learning. Implication for Practice: This study looked past anticipated pressure points to reveal critical teaching factors that challenge--or enable--students as they transition to emergency virtual remote teaching. Post-secondary instructors would be well served to consider how they promote self-efficacy, provide access to supports, fashion an online learning environment, develop community, communicate expectations, and encourage collaboration.
ABSTRACT
Successful teaching practices from ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) with a hybrid, synchronous, in-person format using HyFlex technology should be applied to Developmental English courses, especially in rural areas or wherever the student population frequently encounters transportation issues to overcome barriers to completion and success. This paper reviews lessons learned teaching online during the pandemic and calls upon researchers to further investigate the anecdotal and accidental success of the author.
ABSTRACT
The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic have both short- and long-term repercussions on higher education. To crystallize these impacts in a sector that was particularly vulnerable to the economic effects of the pandemic, this mixed-methods study explores the intersection of international education and community college responses to the pandemic. Findings indicated that due to the pandemic, community college international education programs faced a reallocation of institutional resources, both financial and otherwise, which shapes the educational opportunities available to students and informs the institutional habitus of the US community college. This study's findings have implications in the areas of international student recruitment, limits to higher education access, and impacts on local and regional communities. [Note: The page range (88-103) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 88-104.]
ABSTRACT
In this monumental time of social change, community college news and reports need to be at the forefront of all professionals working in higher education- not just those who work in these unique institutions. Why? There are several reasons, each of which become more apparent while flipping through the pages of Inside Higher Ed's special report "Community College Students and the Pandemic" (St. Amour 2020). To start, higher education is an ecosystem of institutional types, each reliant upon one another to help students and families move up the socioeconomic and education ladders. Interconnectedness, especially during the current crises facing higher education, is a strength as higher education professionals support those whose mobility between institutions has never been more critical. In addition, community college professionals certainly have a front seat view of what truly challenges students and their families when it comes to access to and completion of higher education. Community college stories, both of their students and the institutions themselves, are triumphant, gritty, celebratory, and very, very real. Now is the time for higher education professionals from all corners of the field and institution types to learn from one another. Expand the reports that are read;avoid the temptation to scroll past the headlines not aligned to specific disciplines, functional areas, and communities of practice. This article discuses Inside Higher Ed's "Community College Students and the Pandemic" (St. Amour 2020), a comprehensive collection of the most salient issues in higher education.
ABSTRACT
The three pandemic relief bills passed by Congress since March 2020 collectively provide about $75 billion for U.S. colleges--as well as the students they serve. The legislation has brought three waves of funding to community colleges, known as Higher Education Emergency Relief Funding (HEERF) I, HEERF II, and HEERF III. Colleges must spend a certain portion of the money on emergency financial aid grants to students, and the remainder can be used for institutional priorities related to the pandemic. Colleges must spend the money within one year of receiving it. The funding gives colleges a unique opportunity to make a significant investment in their community. This article discusses the various ways in which colleges are spending HEERF funding.
ABSTRACT
Community college students are more likely to be low-income, people of color and first generation in their family to attend higher education than their four-year peers. For a combination of these reasons, they are more apt to be housing insecure. This article discusses how some community colleges are providing new solutions for residences for students.
ABSTRACT
Instructors teaching during this unprecedented time in history must find ways of engaging students from behind the mask. As a result of the pandemic, my colleagues and I have discovered that students do not respond or participate in the ways they once did. In the classroom, students have become silent spectators, hiding behind the mask, making it a challenge for instructors to engage and for students to be successful. We have struggled mightily to overcome this challenge of engaging students who are in the midst of pandemic survival. This article explores some useful classroom strategies that can be utilized to engage the "pandemic student." It is only through persistence and dedication to student engagement that instructors will be able to reach students in this "new normal" of education. Instructors may have to put to rest old strategies (or at least revamp them) and find new tools and activities to employ to reach behind the barrier of the mask worn by the "pandemic student.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic not only presented unique challenges to faculty and students in the classroom, but it also forced institutions to think creatively about the way they support students. Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) knew it had to provide more than just academic supports for students as the school quickly transitioned into virtual learning in spring 2020. Like many colleges, OTC took an extended spring break and had students return to virtual-only courses. In conjunction with students' return, OTC planned to proactively reach out to each currently enrolled student to connect them with services, check on their transition to virtual learning, and guide them toward any necessary community resources. With limited time and budget, a calling campaign was the best approach to reach students where they were and address their emerging needs. The original calling campaign has been repeated by the college throughout the summer and fall semesters and has been established as a reliable program design. In this article, the authors have outlined this design in order for it to be replicated by other colleges looking for a new way to communicate with their students.