News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2020-08-10-training
August 14, 2020
Online Training for Hart District
On Tuesday, Aug. 5, College of the Canyons provided a three-hour training session
for 45 William S. Hart Union High School District instructional coaches and administrators,
to help them with the current transition to online learning.
Held via teleconferencing software, the session addressed the best practices for online
teaching and learning, and discussed how Hart teachers could apply these approaches
in their virtual classrooms.
"We've enjoyed collaborating with and learning from our colleagues with the Hart District,”
said Joy Shoemate, interim director of online education at the college. “Our students
are their students, and their students are ours. We hope that this project paves the
way for more collaboration."
The Hart teachers who participated in the training session will share what they learned
with their colleagues who are currently completing a supplemental self-paced online
course created by COC. The course covers topics including communicating with students,
humanizing an online presence, building community online, promoting equity online,
and assessing student learning.
“We are very grateful for our partnership with COC and their faculty who were instrumental
in providing this online training for our teachers,” said Jan Daisher, director of
special programs and professional development for the Hart District. “We enjoyed collaborating
on this project throughout the month of July customizing the course for the Hart District.
Through their experience as online instructors, they shared their best practices with
our own teachers who are doing great work moving forward in providing online distance
learning for the start of this new school year.”
The live training session included a panel with the following experienced COC online
instructors: Robert Wonser (Sociology), Julianne Johnson (History), Erin Delaney (English),
Ambika Silva (Math), Erica Seubert (Biology), Jennifer Paris (Early Childhood Education),
and Michelle LaBrie (Psychology).
“During the fall semester, we’ll re-convene for another synchronous session, to see
how it’s going, answer questions, and exchange experiences,” said James Glapa-Grossklag,
dean of educational technology, learning resources, and distance learning at the college.
“We’re excited to learn from our colleagues with the Hart district and look forward
to more collaboration with them.”