Aurora College successfully transitions to online instruction

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aurora College realized that they needed to move their courses online from a largely in-person format. While Aurora College has offered online courses for many years, the environment provided by Learning Pool was relatively unfamiliar to instructors used to teaching exclusively in-person. In response, a rigorous training schedule, led by Learning Pool’s Client Training Coordinator, Rich Lewis, was assembled for Aurora College’s instructors.

Training consisted of six cohorts of instructors going through five two-hour sessions in a workshop style format. Topics covered ranged from course design basics and forums to Gradebook setup & usage and Quiz & Question Banks. “One of the responsibilities of the training team is to provide customized training when a client needs it for specialized situations,” said Mr. Lewis. “but this was the first time, at least in my experience, for something of this scope to be entirely online.”

For the training, Aurora College instructors were each given their own sandbox course to work in. This approach allowed people to follow along in a hands-on way. They clicked through the environment just as the trainer did and were able to share their screen when asking questions. This approach, while somewhat unorthodox, clearly made an impact. “It was intense but very rewarding,” Mr. Lewis said. “It’s an experience I would love to reproduce for more clients when they need to ramp people up quickly. It was like a boot camp.”