PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The Northern Maine Community College staff is making plans to ensure a safe and productive start to the upcoming fall semester, which will begin as planned on Aug. 31.
The planning is guided by two important principles: safety for students, faculty, and staff; and the delivery of a quality educational experience for students.
Making the health and wellness of students and employees the top priority, several strategies implemented this spring will continue into the fall semester. Some examples include: required face coverings, social distancing in both the academic and residential settings, and enhanced cleaning techniques. Students living on campus will also be limited to one student per room. Finally, working with the Maine Community College System, NMCC is developing appropriate and effective screening and other protocols.
“Our community’s need for skilled workers is not diminishing, it’s increasing, and we’re confident that we can deliver proper instruction and training while protecting the health of our students, staff, and the families supporting them,” said NMCC President Timothy Crowley. “Recent developments in on-campus technology, combined with a very proactive safety strategy make this possible.”
The programs requiring face-to-face learning will incorporate both live and online lectures with labs, simulation and clinical experiences for instruction. However, by significantly increasing the number of courses offered online, NMCC is able to reduce the number of students on campus during the regular academic day.
In addition to online instruction, some programs will utilize hybrid instruction, which allows students to be on campus for only the first few weeks before transitioning to fully remote learning strategies.
After the spring semester instruction needed to be adjusted due to the health concerns, faculty worked diligently to move lectures to the online environment using the Brightspace learning management platform, which had been implemented during the fall semester. With students and faculty now familiar with the Brightspace platform, adapting additional lectures to online instruction will be much easier.
All student support services and facilities will be available to students during the fall semester, with limited access due to safety guidelines recommended by the Maine CDC and established executive orders from the governor.
Submitted by the Development and College Relations Office of Northern Maine Community College.
