Fairly Digital

Fairly Digital

The Academic Fair Moves Online

Jeff Barry, associate university librarian

A highlight of orientation week for first-year students is the academic fair, typically held on the main level of Leyburn Library. An opportunity for students to meet faculty from all academic programs prior to registration, it was held virtually this year on August 20 due to the pandemic. Jason Rodocker, dean of first-year students, normally coordinates the fair but requested a point person from Academic Affairs to handle the details. Interim Provost Elizabeth Oliver reached out to KT Vaughan, university librarian, and the library stepped up to the challenge.

To keep the technological hurdles to a minimum, an academic fair website was created to serve as a central hub for listing Zoom links to the various majors and minors. A big thanks goes out to Helen MacDermott of Academic Technology Services for help in getting the site ready.

Fifty-six academic programs and offices participated. Students connected via Zoom to visit programs of interests. Several programs opted to post videos, handouts, suggested course sequencing and other details on the academic fair site. The site has remained up throughout the year for students who want to revisit the information.

With less than a month to plan and implement, the virtual academic fair was a complex task. Breaking the components into simple steps made the initiative manageable for a small team. On the day of the fair, no major glitches were reported. While we hope the fair returns to an in-person event next fall, it’s exciting that everyone pulled together to make sure the virtual fair was successful this year.