MHC’s BEET program expands learning options
By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on April 27, 2021.
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi Students in the built environment engineering technology program at Medicine Hat College can now choose how they want to participate in class – online or in person. The BEET program is the first at the college to offer a HyFlex model of education which emphasizes flexibility for students by using Microsoft Teams. “We’ve been talking for a while about how can we look at delivering online, and the pandemic definitely pushed the whole world to discover, yes, we can actually do this,” said Peter Kelly, the program co-ordinator. “With what we learned over the last year, we decided that we can continue looking at means to deliver online, but not depart from face-to-face delivery as well because there are people who want that face to face.” Kelly says he’s been teaching using the HiFlex model for the past two weeks and it’s been going well. He has three cameras set up in the classroom – one facing the instructor station, one showing the whiteboard and one facing the class so students choosing to learn online can still see everyone in the classroom. The lectures are all recorded and students can access them at any time, says Kelly. “If you’re somebody who would just prefer to learn online instead of being on campus, then that’s for you,” he said. “That works for anybody, whether you’re local in Medicine Hat or … if you were in Red Deer, you could still take this program if you think that the program is the one that works for you, but for your own personal circumstances, moving to Medicine Hat just isn’t feasible, you can still take the program.” Kelly adds the program also allows people to watch the lectures at night if they have a day job, if they have kids to take care of, or they just can’t attend class one day. “This is about flexibility for the students and the learners and for them to be able to choose how they want to participate and when they want to,” said Kelly. “They don’t have to declare that at the beginning of the semester, for example, that can be a change for them from one day to the next. So, on Tuesday they might decide they want to come into the classroom and then on Thursday for some reason they can’t and they can be online if they want to.” Each department is different, but Kelly believes the HiFlex model offers a good learning environment for both online and in-person students, and could be implemented in other programs at MHC. “We are working hard to make sure that whether you are online or in the classroom … that the learning experiences are of the same equal value no matter where you are and when you’re participating,” said Kelly. “If you’re in the classroom, or you’re at home, you’re getting the same value out of the lessons and all of the other activities, the labs and the assignments.” 11-10
