Page 14 - LRCC FOCUS September 2020

EDUCATION GETS A COVID-19 REBOOT

online only and asked undergraduate students And, what is the value of being together.”
to remain at home. There are some exceptions
for the colleges of Law, Human Medicine, “What is school going to look like,” asked
Nursing, Osteopathic Medicine, and Veterinary Varney. “Not all traditional models fit all kids.
Medicine as well as all graduate programs. Down the road, all traditional schools are going
to have to look at different options.”
“Given the current status of the virus in our
country — particularly what we are seeing “Sometimes attendance isn’t as important as
at other institutions as they re-populate are these students understanding the standards
their campus communities — it has become that we want them to understand,” said Blake.
evident to me that, despite our best efforts and “Are there easier, more efficient ways for them to
strong planning, it is unlikely we can prevent get to the learning they need to get to?”
widespread transmission of COVID-19 Schools in the Ingham Intermediate School District quickly ramped up to meet a need in the
between students if our undergraduates return community and served more than one million meals those students in need. “We are seeing a shift
to campus,” said President Stanley. towards seeing if students are mastering content and
competency versus checking the boxes and sitting in
Lansing Community College is offering a mix of online, hybrid, and classroom seats,” said Spadafore.
instruction, the majority of which will be online. Classroom instruction will be
mostly limited to select courses that require hands-on components, such as welding, Mellema noted that educators need to provide both
aviation, heavy equipment, and EMS/paramedic. synchronous (live) and asynchronous (videos, recorded
lessons) approaches.
“We are prepared to provide our students with high-quality, accredited, online course
options that will count the same as any on-campus class,” said Steve Robinson, “What we are learning is that asynchronous education
president, LCC. “We have been focused on strengthening our online learning can have a positive impact for students as long as
opportunities for some time, and we are proud to have such a large online course they can remove the barriers for connectivity and Spadafore
catalog available during these uncertain times.” technology,” said Mellema. “We can find ways that students can watch lessons
time and time again and gather the information. There is value in being able to
Davenport University is also offering both classroom and online instruction for fall go through a lesson more than one time.”
semester.
Something everyone agrees upon: you cannot replace the in-person classroom
The Future Outlook experience, which everyone wants to return to as soon as safely possible.

One of the learning lessons for education as a result of the pandemic is that “The last few months being in my office at East Lansing High School, it has
traditional brick and mortar classroom experiences may never be the same. The been lonely not seeing kids,” said Leyko. “In the meantime, we will make the best
pandemic forced a higher level of creativity and innovation, which may be a good decisions we can and work to get our kids back into the classroom as quickly and
thing for the long-term. Lansing Christian’s Wendy Hofman says the changes safely.”
brought on by the pandemic have been an eye-opener for everyone in education.
“Be patient with us,” said Sinicropi. “We are going to make mistakes. This is all
“If we are going to utilize remote learning as part of how we do education, we want to new to everybody. Not only be patient us, be patient with each other, and be
look at how we can do it most effectively,” said Hofman. “As we do that, we have to patient with yourself. It is a different world right now, and we are all trying to
ask ourselves, what is the teacher’s role? What is the real value of that relationship? adjust to it.” n

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