SBCC Prepares for Unconventional First Day of Classes Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic | Local News

Bus passengers carrying backpacks and congested stretches of roads are among the usual predictions for the first day of classes at Santa Barbara City College.

“Our first day of school is always this moment of joyful chaos,” said Pamela Ralston, the college’s executive vice president of educational programs. “It’s the first day we end up causing a bit of a traffic jam in Santa Barbara at that end of town before everybody adjusts.”

However, this fall will be strikingly different compared with previous years as SBCC students start the semester at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Getting around campus is usually top of mind for people on the first day of classes — before COVID-19 — while the on-campus student parking lots often hit capacity and buses fill faster with riders headed to the SBCC campus at 721 Cliff Drive.

“We have students worried about parking,” Ralston said of back to school before COVID-19. “The busses suddenly are full.”

Pre-pandemic, employees of SBCC’s administration building would help point students in the right direction on the first day of the semester. Student services folks were posted around the seaside campus to help with school-related questions and resources.

The college will look completely different this fall because of public health measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

SBCC has announced that all classes for the fall semester will be taught online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes are scheduled to begin this month.

“Aug. 24 is going to look quiet,” Ralston said. “There will be a ton of Internet activity, so that first-day chaos will get translated into this virtual world.

“People won’t be worried about parking. They will be worried about how to find the way into the virtual classroom, and we will be trying to help.”

On Aug. 7, the state Department of Public Health released guidance for California’s colleges and universities to better help institutions plan and prepare to resume in-person instruction when appropriate based on local conditions.

SBCC officials are carefully reviewing California’s new guidance and will be discussing any questions with county Public Health, SBCC spokeswoman Luz Reyes-Martin last week.

SBCC officials will decide to continue with fully online instruction for the rest of the fall semester if local conditions do not improve sufficiently by the end of September, SBCC Superintendent/President Utpal Goswami said.

Santa Barbara County’s coronavirus situation changed SBCC’s initial plan to hold the majority of its courses online, with a small percentage of classes face-to-face in the fall semester.

“It has been a difficult four or five months in planning because whatever resumption you make, three or four weeks later you find out the resumption is not true,” Goswami told Noozhawk. 

SBCC officials reassessed plans for the fall since the county remains on the California governor’s monitoring list. Santa Barbara County is not meeting key criteria for the reopening of certain industries.

“We have to react to the current information as it emerges,” Goswami said. “We want to make sure health and safety are contained for students and employees, and what best serves the student progression of learning.”

With approval from local Public Health officials, the state will allow certain programs that support critical and essential infrastructure to meet in person to fulfill specific requirements, college officials said. SBCC officials said the college has nine career technology education programs that might meet the exemption.

The college “will proceed with developing plans, in consultation with the Public Health Department, that would allow students to meet face to face to fulfill certain requirements in these programs.”

SBCC has been “quite successful” in deploying its services online, Goswami said, and student support services will remain online throughout the fall semester, he said.

“We may have some employees come to campus and work from campus, but that doesn’t mean they will be serving face-to-face plans for students,” Goswami said. “Students will access all of our services online.” 

College officials are discovering innovative ways to provide SBCC’s various services, Goswami said.

“We haven’t had that many complaints,” Goswami said. “Even though it has been radical change … we do have a few, but nothing that is detracting students from their goals of getting a good education. I’m pleased with the work our faculty and staff has done, and adjusting to this new landscape.”

Hundreds of faculty have been trained in preparation for the online learning environment this fall.

“Nobody can teach online unless they have been trained,” Goswami said.

SBCC transitioned to teaching all courses online in the spring because of the rapid spread of coronavirus in the county.

Over the spring semester through now, SBCC officials have created “one of the best programs” to provide a large number of faculty certified to teach online, Ralston said.

“We already had been offering about a third of our courses in an online environment,” Ralston said. “We have been recognized a number of times by different organizations for our strength in online teaching, but that left us with about 66 percent of our folks needing to have some support and update.”

Faculty preparation for online instruction included training in pedagogical methods and training aimed at improving equity. College officials got a focused look at accessibility and equity issues in an online environment across the scope of classes at SBCC.

“We have added a highly focused equity training in addition to our other pedagogical work to help our teachers do their best work online,” Ralston said, adding that about 100 instructors were trained between May and July, and now the college is working with nearly 300 staff members.

SBCC faculty typically use the Canvas learning management system, according to Ralston.

“Inside that virtual class space, we use different ways to communicate,” Ralston said. 

The videoconferencing platform Zoom is used for synchronous teaching and the period for office hours with faculty members.

Most of the online classes were designed asynchronous, meaning students can access information at times most effectively as possible, Ralston said.

“We are trying to mitigate the fact that a lot of our students are working with families and different environments,” Ralston said. “We are trying to make it work for everyone.” 

College students now are navigating through the financial aid process, registration and selecting classes in an online setting.

“In a normal environment,” SBCC Dean of Student Affairs Paloma Arnold said, “students are able to come and find that help, so we are working hard to make sure we are still providing all of that same help, and making it as accessible to all of our students as possible.”

Academic counselors meet with students via Zoom, and SBCC’s enrollment service staff are providing drop-in Zoom hours for students facing technical challenges with the registration process before school starts in August, Arnold said.

Financial aid is offered through an online system where students can upload documents. The student support services department has implemented a remote phone service, and live chat support features on the SBCC website help answer questions during regular business hours.

“We recognize that students have different ways to communicate with us,” Arnold said. “Some are comfortable using email, some are comfortable using chat and some prefer telephone.”

This year’s “Vaquero Welcome” for new college students will take place in a virtual and interactive setting because of COVID-19

“It’s exciting and will be different,” Arnold said.

SBCC is focused on building community in addition to offering courses, Arnold said.

The college is working to address the technical needs of all learners and taking time to ensure social-emotional needs are met.

Schools provide more than just classes, Arnold said.

“That is true for higher education as well,” Arnold said. “We provide a lot of basic necessities like food and financial aid … disability-related services, mental health services, and in a lot of ways, we work as social workers in addition to educators.” 

For nonresident and out-of-area students, SBCC is working to keep a sense of community amid the pandemic through the college’s several offerings, such as a language exchange program and virtual potlucks.

In times of uncertainty amid COVID-19, virtual gatherings help students stay in touch outside of class.

“A lot of them (nonresident students) are feeling isolated because their families, often, are far away,” SBCC Dean of Educational Programs for International Education Carola Smith said. “We are trying to provide some social activities outside of the classroom — both for our U.S. students and nonresident students to help them stay connected with their friends.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.