NRCC News

NRCC faculty participate in CARES Act Summer Institute

Aug 07 2020

This is an archived article!

This article was published on Aug 07 2020 and was archived on Aug 08 2021. The information below may be outdated or inaccurate.

New River Community College faculty have spent the summer participating in virtual trainings about alternative delivery modes for classes as part of the CARES Act Summer Institute.

Eleven training sessions were created by eight full-time faculty, one adjunct faculty and four staff members to help their peers prepare for different instructional options in the fall semester. The training sessions included topics such as introduction to Canvas, digital resources/copyright information, communication strategies, introduction to OneNote, Panopto, and Zoom, embedding quizzes in Panopto and adding to Canvas, heavy technology lectures, accessibility/universal design/closed captioning, heavy technology lab demonstrations (GoPro), creating and using videos, low tech options/courses, and active learning in Canvas: creating enhanced discussions in Canvas, which is NRCC’s learning management platform. Sixty-two faculty members, 29 adjunct faculty and 33 full-time faculty, participated in at least one of the training sessions in preparation for the fall.

An additional aspect of the Summer Institute included a curriculum development grant opportunity to work on improving courses for remote delivery in the fall semester. Forty-four faculty members applied for a curriculum development grant and were approved. Their projects include learning to use all features of Canvas efficiently, recording lectures using Zoom technology, creating instructional videos using Panopto, using a GoPro camera to demonstrate lab assignments, incorporating active learning strategies and enhanced interaction activities into existing online courses, creating interactive online class environments, re-organizing and developing course content more suitable for online instruction, incorporating guest speakers using Zoom, preparing interactive assessments and video lectures, and identifying ways to support students with limited access to technology.

NRCC’s fall semester courses begin August 24 and will be offered majority online with the exception of some career/technical and workforce development programs that require hands-on or clinical experiences. Staff are available online at www.nr.edu/advising and by telephone at 540-674-3609 to assist with registration or other matters. Fall course class listings will include identifiers so students may readily determine the format in which they are offered.

Funding for the CARES Act Summer Institute was made available through the federal CARES Act that is providing payments to state, local, and tribal governments navigating the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Funds provided by this legislation also supported direct payments to NRCC students to help offset expenses related to the pandemic.