Distance Learning: You’re Not Alone!

illustration of students shaking hands in front of globe with technologu and other learning resourcesOn Wednesday April 22  from 1-2:30 pm, the Peer Advisor Academy, a Peer Program of LaGuardia’s Center for Teaching and Learning, hosted the Distance Learning: You’re Not Alone! panel on Zoom.

Helping students connect, share and learn from one another but more importantly to know they aren’t alone is more important than ever during the remote learning period.  The goal of this virtual event was to hear and learn from student and CTL  peer mentors’ experiences in taking online courses, and for students to know there are others with similar struggles and found ways to overcome their challenges.

During the planning phase, it was better to reach out within our students who are working within CTL to be the panelists. With the help of the CTL’s Oscar Cortes and Sarah Nieves, we recruited a student from the Peer Advisor Academy, SSM, STM,  and Tech Scholars Programs to be our panelists. We were also fortunate enough to have a LaGuardia alum Pablo Avila, the Associate Director of ePortfolio and Digital Learning at the Center.

The panel mainly focused on how students struggle with time management, self-care, class registration and campus services as well as keeping up with the vast amount of tools being used for communication Fall 2020 (financial aid, registration) digital tools. The panelists shared their own experiences taking courses online, and offered practical, relatable tips to help students  succeed throughout the distance-learning period.

By learning more about our students’ struggles, we can better adapt the ways we reach out to them.