Engineer Professor Doug Leaffer will use software simulation programs to replicate an engineering benchtop environment for his online students in the fall.

In mid-June, well before most colleges and universities, Northern Essex Community College announced that the fall semester of 2020 would be offered 90% online.

By making a decision early, the college had the time to focus on building an online experience that would be equal to what students could experience in a face-to-face classroom, according to Bill Heineman, vice president of academic and student affairs.

“When we had to transition to remote learning in March due to the pandemic, we didn’t have the luxury of making sure those courses adhered to our strict online guidelines,” said Heineman. “Now, with months to prepare, we could create high quality online courses across all disciplines.”

Half Million Dollar Investment in Faculty Training

The college made the decision to invest a half million dollars to help faculty transition courses to online delivery over the summer. That money is funding faculty stipends for developing online courses and a team of “buddies”, nine faculty members who have taught online successfully in the past and can now mentor and coach those who are new to online.

Key to all of this is the college’s Center for Instructional Technology (CIT), which includes Melba Acevedo, director of instructional technology & online learning, Sue Tashjian, coordinator of instructional technology, Christina Gardner-Burns, part-time instructional technologist, and Rick Lizotte, instructional coach & professor of ESL.

CIT has been helping faculty developing online courses for 20 years, most recently using a six-week online training module that they’ve developed called “iTeach”. iTeach is competency-based, meaning faculty progress when they’ve mastered a skill.

While Northern Essex has a proven process for transitioning courses to online delivery, it had never been done on this scale. Typically, 15 to 20 courses might be developed in one year. This summer 150 faculty members are developing 200 courses, a more than ten-fold increase.

To put things in perspective, in the fall of 2019, 23% of Northern Essex courses were offered in an online format. This fall, 90% will be online with only courses like health and science labs offered face-to-face.

Online Doesn’t Mean Second-Best

Faculty new to online learning are most concerned that students get the same knowledge as they would in a face-to-face course, said CIT director, Melba Acevedo, who assures them that they can.

“When designed well, online classes keep the best characteristics of face-to-face courses. In iTeach, faculty learn how to create engagement, interaction, and social presence in their online classes. It’s more about pedagogy than technology, which initially surprises some faculty.”

Doug Leaffer, who teaches engineering and is currently enrolled in iTeach, was skeptical at first. “Initially, I viewed online engineering course delivery as challenging. I wasn’t convinced that students could make the transition from “benchtop” learning in one of our instructor-led engineering labs to “desktop” learning on their own computer.

What Leaffer soon found was that software simulation programs could replicate the engineering benchtop environment. “While not tactile activities, they are useful substitutes, fun to use and visually appealing.”

Leaffer is now looking forward to the fall. He plans to beta test his online engineering cohort and use what he learns to refine the online engineering curriculum.

NECC Now Well-Prepared to Compete in Online Learning Arena

While preparations this summer have clearly been a lot of work for college faculty and staff, Vice President Heineman says Northern Essex is now better prepared to compete in the online learning arena, which is likely to grow as the public gets comfortable with working and learning remotely.

In the past, the college had few online options in health and STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) but as of this fall that will no longer be the case.

“This is a long term investment in online learning,” says Acevedo. “It’s an exciting opportunity for an institution that has always been promoted as a good value to improve our flexibility.”

Here’s how to register this fall at Northern Essex and here’s information on learning online at NECC.