Back to school- online

This week is back to school for many students and teachers at Dawson College. In only two weeks, a team has moved as much of the College as possible online. Classes resume remotely over the period of March 30 through April 9.

“It is a colossal effort,” said Dean Raymond Bourgeois, coordinator of Dawson’s Online Response Team.

Dawson’s Academic Dean Diane Gauvin spoke of the magnitude of the project in a message to faculty and students: “Over the last two weeks, we have been building a temporary virtual campus of Dawson College. In this campus, Dawson is bringing online:

• 10,084 students
• More than 700 teachers
• 2,180 course sections
• 53,261 course seats.”

Teachers are learning new online platforms and preparing to deliver their courses online as best they can while maintaining academic integrity and continuing to cover competencies.

“In an effort to salvage the semester, our teachers, with support from the College, are providing  emergency remote learning,” said Director General Richard Filion. “This is a critical period we are living through and employees have put a tremendous amount of work into doing this. I want to say a very special thank you to all our employees.”

Here are some more numbers that illustrate the work involved in our big move to the new Virtual Campus:

• Dawson now has 700 Zoom licenses
• 96 Zoom meetings last week (before classes began)
• 9 webinars last week offered by our Faculty Hub
• 12 more webinars this week offered by our Faculty Hub
• 381 participants in training webinars offered by our Faculty Hub
• 71 teachers and employees offering mentorship
• About 90 laptops were given out to employees and about 15 to students so far

We would like to acknowledge the efforts made by so many at Dawson College to support our teachers and fulfill our core educational mission during this unprecedented crisis:

• Faculty members
• Communities of Practice
• Office of Academic Development
• Academic Administration
• Academic Initiatives
• SALTISE
• Information Systems and Technology
• Student Services
• Quality Assurance and Planning Office (QAPO)
• Communications Office
• Many managers, professionals and support staff from across the College

Students are being contacted by their teachers to join classes on a variety of platforms. Dawson is offering resources, support and information through our new Virtual Campus microsite.