NWACC prepares for school year

NWA Democrat-Gazette/JASON IVESTER
Students walk across campus on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017, at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/JASON IVESTER Students walk across campus on Monday, Jan. 30, 2017, at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas Community College is preparing to start the school year with covid-19 precautions in place.

The school will offer a mix of in-person and online classes, Teresa Taylor, executive director of risk, policy and compliance, said Monday during a presentation to the Board of Trustees. Classes that cannot reasonably be conducted online such as culinary, health professions or construction will be offered only in person.

In-person classes will have up to nine students and one instructor who must stay 6 feet apart and wear masks, Taylor said.

Some online classes will be taught live and require students to log in at a scheduled time. Others will be self-paced and allow students to log on and complete coursework any time, she said.

Joe Spivey, trustee, expressed concern that students who don't learn well via virtual learning may fall behind and asked whether NWACC had considered offering "catch-up classes."

"I am worried from what I've heard from the community about students who just may struggle with virtual learning or independent study. It's hard to sit at home with so many distractions especially today," he said.

Taylor and Ricky Tompkins, vice president of learning, said that is partly why NWACC will continue to offer some in-person classes and the scheduled online classes. Instructors will teach scheduled online classes live, and students will be able to ask questions as if they were in an in-person class, Tompkins said.

NWACC will also continue to only allow students and staff on campus and keep some services, such as the game room and food court, closed, Taylor said. The school will not offer covid-19 testing onsite and will help with contact tracing for students and staff who test positive for the virus.

Grant Hodges, executive director of community and government relations and marketing, said he and Taylor plan to meet Wednesday to discuss what the school's communication plan will be in the event students and staff test positive for the virus.

"There's some questions about are we going to have to send out an emergency alert at some point for a case -- how we are going to handle that -- emergency alerts versus daily updates," Hodges said.

Alex Golden can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAalexgolden.

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