By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
With students now spread throughout the state, country and the world, Barton Community College resumed classes March 30 through an online platform because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual classes delivers an education for students to enable them to finish their spring classes.
Barton’s Dean of Academics Brian Howe says the spring break extension gave faculty added time to plan and adapt the curriculum for alternative deliveries of education.
“The biggest challenge is making sure everyone has the technology that they need,” said Howe. “Our IT folks have been fantastic repurposing and rearranging equipment we have. At this point, you cannot order something and get it here in time or it is sold out.”
Howe says the college’s experience in providing online learning was invaluable for making the instruction change so quickly.
“We started with online instruction back in 1999, in the infancy of the internet,” said Howe. “All that information was readily available and made our transition relatively easy.”
Classes resumed via Zoom, Barton’s online streaming video service.
The college is maintaining a minimal staff including faculty who are currently working from home. The school has been closed to the public since March 24.