As COVID-19 pandemic concerns continue to loom, Michigan’s 28 community colleges are encouraging students to take advantage of more than 4,500 courses they are offering as a group online.
“Michigan’s community colleges are prepared to provide students with high-quality, accredited, online course options that will count the same as any on-campus class,” says Mike Hansen, president of the Michigan Community College Association. “Our colleges have been focused on strengthening online learning opportunities for years and are proud to have such a large online course catalog available during these uncertain times.”
If a college doesn’t have the online course a student needs, he or she may be able to access it through the MCCA’s Michigan Colleges Online, which provides community college students with access to online courses, regardless of what college in which they are enrolled. The collaborative allows students from anywhere in Michigan to take any of the more than 1,200 online courses included in the system.
Online education through Michigan’s community colleges includes a variety of best practices, including student orientations and the same student support services that would be received by any on-campus student.
Through MCO, students are able to engage with their professors, and faculty are specifically trained on how to teach online. Students taking online courses also are able to schedule time with an advisor, access free tutoring, and checkout books from the college library.
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The area’s four-year universities also will be offering online courses in addition to in-person classes when their semesters begin over the next two months.
- The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor will offer in-person and remote classes when its 2020 fall semester begins on Aug. 31.
- Michigan State University’s fall term begins Sept. 2 in East Lansing with on-campus classes, which also will have online components. All in-person instruction will end on Nov. 25. Any instruction, study sessions or final exams after that date will take place.
- Detroit’s Wayne State University officials say about 46 percent of its courses will be conducted online when the fall semester begins Aug. 30.
- All three University of Detroit Mercy campuses will be fully in session for the 2020-21 academic year, which begins Aug. 24. It will employ will a hybrid learning model that incorporates both in-person and virtual learning. All classes will move entirely online following Thanksgiving break through the Dec. 12 end of the semester
- Lawrence Technological University in Southfield will host on-campus courses beginning Aug. 24. School officials say online and more hybrid-style classes also will be offered, and that in-person courses will go 100 percent online following the Thanksgiving break.
In Related News: The University of Michigan and Dropbox Inc. of San Francisco are partnering to deploy Dropbox Education campus wide.
Dropbox Education will allow faculty to distribute assignments, share updated materials, track deadlines, and highlight upcoming projects. Students can use Dropbox Paper to collaborate in real-time and advance group projects by assigning to-dos, setting due dates, and @mentioning classmates. Working groups can upload, download, view, and work on content whether in class, the residence halls, or at home. Staff and administrators can utilize the Dropbox Admin Console, and secure data with enterprise-grade security features like multi-layered protection and encryption.
Dropbox Education is said to “integrate seamlessly” with tools that U-M already uses, like Zoom and Canvas, to ease collaboration.
“COVID-19 has created extraordinary learning challenges for university students across the country,” says Olivia Nottebohm, COO at Dropbox. “We’re honored to be a resource for students and faculty to keep their work organized and in one place.”
