LLCC courses continue to adapt to online classes

The governor’s stay at home order has extended LLCC’s online classes. The community college has already put all summer classes online and announced that most of the spring semester’s classes will be online.  

Lynn Whalen, executive director of public relations and marketing, notes that “the vast majority of classes will be able to finish on time, and some of the classes that have lab or clinical requirements may have to be completed after the end of the current semester.”

The nursing department has taken special precautions as well. According to Whalen “The healthcare programs are regulated by various accrediting, licensing or certifying agencies, so there’s no one answer on how and when those will be completed.” 

“I know that the vice president of academic services is working closely with the deans to, as Dr. Warren said, look for remote/online options that might be effective and will help students who still need lab or clinical experience to complete as soon as is safely possible,” Whalen said.

LLCC’s speech classes have been offered online before, so speech professors are not a stranger to making accommodations for online students. 

“Actually, LLCC offers completely online speech courses that don’t demand face to face.” Communications Professor Brenda Protz points out. 

Protz shares her own experiences with her online classes, “In my case, I prefer to be in front of students. In my opinion, interaction in this course is important.” 

She continues “Since I’ve never been properly trained to teach online this has been rough. I’ve made my own system and it’s slowly working. I’m using lots of different ways to get information through to my students. “ 

Protz has been making efforts to speak to her students using phone calls, text, email, Facebook messenger, FaceTime.  

This has been a confusing and bizarre time for most people, but LLCC’s administrators and professors have been working hard to accommodate students as best as they possibly can.”  

“In general, I guess we are figuring it out,” Protz confesses. “Many of my students have never taken an online class. Some have little to no technology at home and rely heavily on the school’s resources. But they are getting it done. I miss them and I’m so proud of them all.”