Throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic, Coastal Alabama Community College has been at the forefront of response, not only in advocacy of its thousands of students, but the greater communities they live in. And in mid-March, when the College’s on-campus curriculum had to quickly transition to distance learning online, each campus was ready.
Systems were already in place for the conversion, and in just two days the network’s digital enrollment doubled as more than 4,000 Coastal Alabama Community College students continued their spring semester studies online. The level of preparation not only allowed the students and faculty to continue their work unabated, but provided a calm dependability everyone needed in such a tumultuous time.
“I think it brings to the forefront what our real mission really is, to support the needs of the communities we serve,” said Dr. Craig Pouncey, President of Coastal Alabama Community College.
That mission is being served in myriad ways in the era of the coronavirus, from unlimited access to internet in each campus’s parking lots, to the development of free, adult education programs offering the recently unemployed short-term certificates to improve their employability once the economy opens and recovers.
In Brewton and Foley, the College’s Nursing and Allied Health department recently donated hundreds of medical-grade masks and gowns to D.W. McMillan Memorial Hospital and South Baldwin Regional Medical Center, respectively. There’s a critical need for such supplies, and Jean Graham, Dean of Nursing and Allied Health, said the donation was a natural extension of the relationships fostered between the department and its healthcare partners, which the nursing students rely on for clinical work each semester.
“We’re more than happy to assist them in any way we can,” Graham said. “We like to give back.”
When the coronavirus pandemic engulfed the United States, institutions like Coastal Alabama Community College were handed a bevy of logistical challenges, which Vinson Bradley, Dean of Student Services, said the college has handled admirably. His department manages everything related to enrolled and incoming students, and Bradley has overseen an unprecedented level of “real-time communication” between faculty, staff and the student body.
That includes advisors, who maintain a direct relationship with the students, and support staff for the faculty — all of whom are under tremendous stress during the healthcare crisis. One measurable aspect for the College’s response to COVID-19, that Bradley said is a positive sign of systemic heath, is summer enrollment, which he said is up by 300 students more than this time in 2019.
For those already enrolled during the current spring semester, a majority of the issues have been due to some students’ lack of access to computers and the internet. Ann Strickland, Director of Distance Learning at Coastal Alabama Community College, said the college’s IT department has already supplied laptops to every student who lacked computer access. And the College is working with area internet service providers to help provide the necessary broadband for class work, which has been extended to the general public at each campus, as well.
The workhorse of distance learning throughout the college is its Canvas learning management system, Strickland said. Prior to COVID-19, that system was designed to house multi-faceted digital communities for students and faculty, which has been an invaluable tool for training, step-by-step instruction, tutorials and more.
Strickland said 1,200 courses were converted from traditional, “seated” programs to digital, and live conferencing and tutoring resources were added in recent days, making Canvas a “one-stop shop” for all who use it. The adult and continuing education classes the College offered before the pandemic didn’t even have online components, and since, all 600 students enrolled in those courses have been able to continue exclusively online.
"Once (the health crisis) happened, it all fell into place since we had so many great things already in the works,” Strickland said. “That’s allowed us to really shine.”
Coastal Alabama Community College isn’t resting on its laurels, however. New technical programs are already in development for the Fall 2020 semester, just as the college prepares for a smooth transition from spring to summer semesters. And whenever the stay-in-place orders are lifted statewide, the administration is confident students and faculty will be able to pivot back to traditional classroom courses just as efficiently.
Dr. Pouncey said the College is prepared to accomplish that transition “overnight if given the opportunity.”
“My challenge to everyone is to maintain the engagement necessary to help these students realize we really care, and that’s been our focus in this time of uncertainty,” he said. “And I’m very proud of our staff and the measures they’ve taken to meet that challenge.”
