11 ONLINE SERVICES & LEARNING DURING COVID-19
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YVC Responds to the Global Pandemic In the middle of March, Yakima Valley College faculty and students were busy preparing for winter fnals when Governor Jay Inslee announced statewide closures of all public and private schools in an efort to stop the spread of COVID-19. YVC along with other schools around the state worked quickly to close their campuses to the public. After fnals, the college spent the week of spring break reformatting classes from face-to-face to online for spring quarter. Work was also done to outft staf with the equipment they would need to begin working remotely. In May a small portion of the students enrolled in workforce education programs were approved to return to campus. Each program is following strict public health procedures, including daily survey, social distancing, and masking. A student survey halfway through the quarter revealed that 88% of students said the remote learning experience was positive and that they felt connected to faculty. With the positive feedback on remote learning and the status of the community in mind, YVC decided to continue online instruction for summer and fall quarters. Faculty and staf have worked hard to make this transition successful for students and to support our community. Some of the eforts are highlighted below.
Campus Safety
“YVC knows we all have a role in preparing our community to thrive again,” stated Director of Occupational Health and Safety Shawn Teng. “From the beginning of this global crisis YVC students, faculty and staf have been working and adapting together on a common mission of maintaining the highest level of education possible, educating the community on the changing details of COVID-19, preserving and routing emergency resources to front-line responders, and working to slow the spread of the virus in our community in order to gain time for scientists and researchers to fnd solutions to protect humanity,” he continued. YVC has purposely instituted measures that exceed many Federal and State recommendations and will continue to practice and implement, as necessary, strict safety guidelines as a systematic approach to reopening our campus community.
Technology
A tremendous amount of efort was done by YVC's Technology Services department to get students and staf ready for online learning and working remotely. “Once a decision was fnalized to move over to an online modality due to the increase in COVID in our area, we acted quickly in acquiring technology that would be necessary for our faculty, staf, and students to be successful online,” stated Director of Technology Services Dilbar Chhokar. “We gathered all available resources on campus and purchased additional laptops/tablets, hotspots, webcams, and microphones. While we worked closely with Media Services to distribute technology to our students safely and efectively, our eLearning team was preparing courses, tips, and providing any assistance necessary to prepare our faculty to be successful in an online environment," he continued.
Math & Writing Centers
Staf on both the Yakima and Grandview campuses worked to quickly move services for the math and writing centers online. Utilizing Zoom rooms, the writing and mater centers created virtual centers to connect students with consultants, getting them real-time help at their convenience. To do this, teams kept a continuous Zoom meeting open during their daily hours of operation, mirroring the welcoming open-door atmosphere of the physical centers. The teams also used the breakout rooms feature to create private tutoring spaces. "Our goal was to keep students’ use of the virtual center as close to what they would experience in the physical locations as possible, hoping that the familiarity would translate to accessibility and make adapting to online tutoring easier for students and consultants," stated Writing Center Instructional and Classroom Support Technician II Joshua Swayne. "Despite the newness of using Zoom for many, students were still able to fnd, access, and use our Zoom space as hoped, and our team of consultants quickly adapted to using the program’s features to have conversations with students about their writing, allowing us to maintain the human connection that is vital to the support we ofer students," he continued.
11 Yakima Valley College
