COC prepares students for the workforce

Although Canyon College is limited to remote teaching in the fall semester of 2020, it is clear that not everything can be taught correctly through Zoom.

Students participating in essential infrastructure programs, such as welding, culinary arts, automotive technicians, medical laboratory technicians, emergency medical technicians (EMT), land surveying, construction management and technology, and nursing, require hands-on training before they can enter the job.

After following state and county regulations to obtain the necessary permits to start campus courses, the college began to provide face-to-face instruction for more than 50 basic infrastructure courses to provide students with a hands-on training semester in the fall of 2020.

As a result, countless students have gained employment, and four nursing graduates and 37 EMT graduates will be eligible to take the national license examination.

Cindy Schwanke, the chair of the culinary arts program at the college, said: “Being able to complete the training in person can provide students with the skills and skills they need.” “It is difficult to teach it online.”

After adjusting the syllabus and receiving online teaching training, the Culinary Arts Department reorganized its plan to teach introductory courses online and provide personal guidance to senior students who are about to complete their degrees.

Schwanke said: "We are very grateful to the college for allowing us to return to campus." "I am happy for the students."

On Tuesday morning, at the Culinary Education Institute at Canyon College, five masked students gathered around a large table and watched chef Michelle Razzano pour liquid nitrogen on a bowl of marshmallows. Next door, chef Daniel Otto (Daniel Otto) teaches students how to properly grill steak. In another corner of the building, Schwank's students poured chocolate under her watchful and skillful eyes.

Schwanke said: “When they walk into a professional kitchen or pastry shop, they don’t feel cold.” “This gives them a familiar feeling about the kitchen and masters some basic mobility skills, so they don’t need on-the-job training. "

Once the green light for in-person teaching is received, the College’s Medical Laboratory Technician (MLT) program will also reconsider its teaching methods in order to best teach students during the pandemic, which stimulates the creativity of teachers.

"We are using more video and audio recorded instructional information to help our students know in advance what we will do in the laboratory," said Dr. Solyyn Chu, chairman of the college's MLT program. "This helps students predict and plan laboratory activities, thereby improving our efficiency in completing tasks on campus in a timely manner. Students come to class and are ready to go."

Nevertheless, the adjustment process is still challenging for teachers and students.

Chu said: "I didn't realize how facial expressions, especially facial expressions in campus teaching seriously affect teaching." "Students encourage them to continue learning new skills while seeing when you smile. Wear a mask. It is difficult to do this."

In a recent laboratory lecture, when Chu filmed a laboratory lecture on how to operate a blood cell counter with the help of an assistant, four students who kept their distance from society were present.

"Having students observe how to perform new technologies and skills live is essential to students' ability to connect speech theory with laboratory experience," Chu said. "Online simulation activities are very important. However, they cannot replace hands-on operations in the laboratory."

To this end, the campus curriculum aims to provide students with opportunities to develop skills and enhance self-confidence to the greatest extent.

"These activities will help them to work safely and effectively on the clinical site in the second year of the program," Chu said. "Without an on-campus laboratory course, they may not be able to practice safety skills and techniques, and cannot build confidence to ensure their success in clinical training and follow-up work."

He added that the experience that students gain in clinical laboratory courses can help them obtain laboratory assistant positions and entry-level positions in clinical laboratories.

"Since many COVID-19 testing facilities are hiring specimen processors, laboratory assistants, and non-technical personnel to help increase testing laboratories, this is the current demand," Chu said.

Chu said that California and many parts of the United States lack MLT, so training the next generation of MLT has never been more critical.

He said: “Physicians and healthcare professionals rely on our services to diagnose and monitor the treatment of all patients, including those with underlying diseases and COVID-19 patients.”

The demand is so high that several students have been hired as blood draw doctors and laboratory assistants in various facilities.

“Due to the recent surge in COVID-19, this has affected their ability to focus on school work as they perform additional shifts in hospitals to cover colleagues who are positive for COVID-19 but cannot work,” Chu said. "Now it is a very challenging time for our students."

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