Durham College enrolment steady heading into fall semester

By Courtney Bachar/The Oshawa Express/LJI Reporter

Durham College is looking at hybrid delivery for the fall semester in September.

Based on current guidelines due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ralph Hofmann, associate dean for the School of Justice & Emergency Services at Durham College, says, “Our intent is to offer hybrid delivery, which means when we can’t do face-to-face, we will be remote,” he adds, noting everything is subject to change as circumstances continue to change.

Hofmann says most of the lecture-based courses will remain remote, however, he explains that doesn’t mean students will be able to work at their own pace as the online aspect will be active teaching.

“It will be a combination of video conference and recorded lectures,” says Hofmann, adding if students miss a class they can go back because the online activities are all recorded.

The challenge, Hofmann says, is community colleges are practical and in every program there is some component where they have to be face-to-face.

“Our skilled trades are like that. Our science programs are like that and so are our justice programs. We also have a paramedic program where they simply have to be face-to-face for a certain amount of time just to learn how to do the assessments and skills,” he explains.

For the in-person aspect of the programs, Hofmann says Durham College’s health and safety committee has gone through, based on the current guidelines for occupancy, and rated every lab for occupancy.

“The challenge then for the program is to say, ‘yes we can make this work’, ‘yes we can make this work differently,’ or ‘no we can’t make this work,” says Hofmann, noting in some cases, the labs may be too small and it can’t work, or in some cases adjustments will have to be made in order to make it happen.

“What we didn’t want to do is say everything is online,” he says, adding some institutions have made that choice.

“Our feeling right now is that we’re being guided by the public health guidelines and safety will come first,” says Hofmann. “Whenever there’s a doubt we’ll either go smaller or we won’t do it. But we’re making decisions now on what we can do in person.”

He notes faculty wants this as well.

“People come into teaching because they want to share and most of them get their energy from the students,” he says. “For a lot of the faculty, it’s critical they get that opportunity.”

Hofmann adds most students have also taken this on “enthusiastically.”

“For a lot of students, they have gone into this enthusiastically. There are some students that are unsure, and there are students that are scared, and we recognize that and we will accommodate those students as well,” he says. “We don’t shortcut any standard, but we recognize the fact some students do have concerns and so do we, and we’re not doing this lightly.”

 

Enrolment remains steady for September session

Durham College is seeing steady enrolment for its fall semester.

“We’ve actually seen stability,” says Emma Cronin, manager of admissions for Durham College. “We anticipated that there would be a cohort of students who wouldn’t want to attend until they knew what courses would look like for the fall,” says Cronin. “What we are seeing however, is that most students don’t want to delay for a semester, or a year, so their plans are on track and they are continuing for September, whether that is online or in person, or a combination,” she adds, noting there’s a commitment from returning students to finish.

Cronin says the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on international enrolment while domestic enrolment hasn’t seen much of a change.

“International travel has definitely been impacted since we don’t know what the travel guidelines will be from the government so there will be a shortfall there,” she says, noting while domestic enrolment hasn’t changed much, there won’t be a clear picture on demographics until all students have been enrolled.

Cronin says Durham College is continuing to focus on boosting enrolment.

“We have high level contact ordinarily with applicants anyhow as part of our communication plan, but now we are sharing more regular information with students, keeping them informed of what the plans are for the fall and what delivery will look like,” she says, noting the college is sharing new information as it becomes available.

“We’ve also hosted a number of webinars and a virtual open house to engage applicants at whatever stage of the process they’re in to try and offer support,” she adds.

Durham College will be hosting another pair of online webinars today, Wednesday, July 15, from 10 to 11 a.m. and 3 to 4 p.m., on navigating the first-year experience.

For more information, visit www.durhamcollege.ca.