Increasing Equity for All Students With Class
Salt Lake Community College switched to Class amid the pandemic, but stayed with Class to ensure accessibility for students and success for staff.
HIGHER ED SALT LAKE CITY, UT 33,420 STUDENTS
SLCC AT-A-GLANCE
THE CHALLENGE
Supporting a diverse student population
As the only community college in Utah, Salt Lake Community College serves students from all kinds of backgrounds. “Our students are generally single mothers, veterans, students who are first time, or first generation college students who are coming to our online courses because they know SLCC reflects who they are. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion at SLCC is because of the student populations who attend here. It’s part of our mission and values,” says Gavin Harper, Director of Online, eLearning Services & CBE at SLCC.
To support their diverse student population through the pandemic, SLCC needed to find an online learning tool that could help them continue their education remotely.
“We have 10 campuses and are definitely the most diverse college in Utah. We have more students and less funding, so finding the right tools and technology to impact our students is incredibly important.”
GAVIN HARPER, Director of Online, eLearning Services & CBE,
Salt Lake Community College
THE SOLUTION
Adopting an equitable online learning experience
SLCC switched to Class during the pandemic, but chose to stay with Class once they realized how valuable and equitable the online learning tool was for their students. “Right after the pandemic, we all expected this modality to go away and no longer be supported. But our students were still signing up for these online synchronous courses first. So we recognized that we really needed to continue this for them,” shares Gavin. “We might have stumbled into it during the pandemic, but based on registration, our students were really telling us, ‘Please make sure that Class doesn’t go away’.” Corey Stevens, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning Technology, adds, “we have a lot of people who are really excited about this!”
Ethical
accessibility
standards
After a thorough Accessibility Review, SLCC found Class to be an excellent fit for their diverse student population.
Reliable
technology
infrastructure
SLCC conducted a Technology Review and determined Class’s tech infrastructure to be secure and compliant, leading to an easier adoption.
Enhanced
engagement
features
With Class, SLCC students can still connect and interact with their peers and professors as they would in an on-campus course.
Flexible
access from
anywhere
Class’s online synchronous learning environment empowers SLCC students to balance their education and personal responsibilities.
THE RESULTS
Ensuring equity in an online environment
By adding Class to their existing web conferencing software, SLCC delivers a more equitable, accessible, and successful online learning experience for a staff distributed across 10 campuses and the most diverse student population in the state.
“I think we’re having such high adoption rates because we took the change management very seriously,” shares Stevens. “It’s an almost formulaic process where we plan on how to communicate and build FAQs, how-to articles, and knowledge base articles. I think our careful implementation has set ourselves up well to affect positive change and foster excitement about Class.”
“And what’s really important to us is we’re advocating for a positive experience for our students,” adds Gavin. “So Corey and I would not be doing all this work [to rollout Class] if we didn’t recognize that this was something that students were benefiting from as well. I hope other people can see the value of Class for their students and institution too.”
Improved accessibility
for students
“Online synchronous courses really offer accessibility and equity of experience. We can educate more students better because we have tools like Class to make that education better for them. So really it’s an important part of the toolbox in all of the different modalities that we have,” shares Corey.
Increased staff adoption
with effective training
“An incredible milestone was when I overheard one faculty member convincing another to use Class. Word of mouth was happening between different faculty. It wasn’t just an announcement or an email from me. It was their department meetings and water cooler conversations that got them here,” boasts Corey.
Named one of the
best online institutions
“This year, we were ranked in Newsweek as one of the best online institutions in the country, and we take that responsibility very seriously. There were only two other Utah institutions on that list. So when my team is building online courses, the technology that we choose reflects that kind of quality at the same time,” says Gavin.