Suffolk Community College leads in Post-COVID Learning

By: Frank Yunker

Date: 2024-02-19

Three of New York's largest community colleges had a chance to show that they learned something from the 2020 pandemic and economic shutdown. The snow storm that hit lower New York on Tuesday February 13, 2024 affected both Nassau and Suffolk Community Colleges on Long Island and Westchester Community College just north of New York City.

Suffolk Community College converted to "remote learning." Instead of missing a day of classes, they attempted to keep the momentum of the Spring semester going by doing something rather than nothing. Without addressing specific classes and courses, undoubtedly some classes were more successful than others with the day's lecture. But Microsoft Teams allows for real-time class lectures. The professor can profess. The students can hear and absorb the material. Videos can be created and placed in Brightspace, the LMS (Learning Management System) used by most of the SUNY community colleges. Reading material can be added quickly and even quizzes can be created and uploaded in minutes.

What about Nassau and Westchester? Those professors must have put their pajamas on backward and inside out, doing the "hokey pokey" in the family room, followed by the "chicken dance" in front of the refrigerator and putting a spoon and cotton ball under their pillow at night. Every elementary school kid knows the recipe for a snow day and that's what both colleges received. Yay for making snow angels on the side lawn and drinking hot cocoa, but what about course objectives and student learning outcomes?

Does remote learning work? By their actions, Nassau and Westchester are saying "no." So, what about the students who graduated during the pandemic? If remote learning didn't work, then how did those students pass their classes and graduate?

If remote learning did work, then why not integrate it into the planned mode of delivery? After all, many jobs today have a "work from home" component that gives employees an option to work remotely some or even all of the time. How better to prepare students for the 21st Century workplace than to integrate remote learning into the curriculum. "Snow Days" are the perfect first step into the "work from anywhere" atmosphere.

Nassau Community College gets a second red flag in that they cancelled their Board of Trustees meeting for February 13th. The Board only meets once a month and they also cancelled their January meeting. Is there so little action before the Board that meeting monthly is unnecessary? Perhaps it's time for the Nassau Board of Trustees to add an item to their March Agenda. Explore meeting remotely. And then add a second item. Explore Remote Learning!