By: Cynthia Doss | Syracuse EOC
Covid-19 required educators across the country, from K-12 to colleges, to make changes in their operations and structure. Syracuse EOC was no different. In order to keep our students and ourselves safe, we followed the directives from both Governor Cuomo and County Executive Ryan McMahon. These changes required a new reality.
Our students and our faculty, very swiftly, made the switch to a distance learning education. Most of our faculty developed a curriculum that would allow our students to continue during the NY on Pause. And our Medical Billing & Coding and our Medical Secretary programs were already in a hybrid state with distance learning.
Distance learning may have been a new concept for some of our students (and some of our faculty), but within two weeks, most of our students were on their way to continuing their goals. Our faculty utilized Zoom, Google Classroom, Google Voice, YouTube, and email for interactions with students. Each of these systems allowed our faculty to continue working together with students on their education. For those students who could not participate in distance learning, faculty found other ways to engage them. Some faculty sent work through the mail, and some sent assignments through email. This allowed for students with connectivity and hardware issues to still participate in the programs offered by the EOC.
In making this transition, we all realized the importance of students having an email account. An email account was not only important for assignments, but to keep in touch with our students. With the lack of face-to-face contact, it was imperative our students knew we were still there for them. Our notification system allowed us to leave voice messages and send text messages, but we needed to send email messages to our students with information we believed they needed. There were many times during this pandemic Syracuse EOC had access to flyers and/or documentation we knew our students wanted. Email was the most reliable way of sending this information.
This remodeling of what education looks like, was not about being easy or happening fast. For us, this was about what was best for the students. Our students needed to continue to learn, and we found a way to give them what they needed. The EOC is continuing with this process by offering all online programming for the Fall semester.
We do not know what the future is going to look like, but we believe no matter the situation, we will continue to provide our students with sound programming for their future.
