Tri-C Summer Camps Adjust to Virtual World

Instructors, students overcome challenges posed by pandemic restrictions

The safe distancing guidelines necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic created hurdles in some of the most unlikely places.

For instance, how do you hold a ballet class in which the instructor and every student is in a separate location? It’s easy to visualize how you might hold an online lecture in math or English, but how do you accurately teach the movement and rhythm of dance via streaming video?

Summer camps and programs at Cuyahoga Community College and other educational institutions throughout Northeast Ohio are discovering it can be done — with some modifications.

A recent ideastream segment highlighted several summer programs and the steps they are taking to meet the unique challenges posed by pandemic restrictions. These programs include ballet and music classes at Tri-C’s Creative Arts Academy.

Emanuela Friscioni, the academy’s director, notes that even the best online platforms have limitations. Instructors must take an unconventional approach to their classes.

“For instance, one of the hardest things for us to do is music,” Friscioni told ideastream. “Even with the best platform available, there will be always a delay in sound, so playing together is really not an option.”

Students are often divided into smaller groups to help lessen the impact of the sound delay, she said.

Device availability is another hurdle, requiring classes to have additional flexibility in how they are offered. Tri-C summer programs use Flipgrid, a service that allows students to access a program’s curriculum by computer or phone.

“In families where you have multiple kids, the use of the computer might be very limited, especially if everybody wants to use it at the same time,” Friscioni said. “Some families might not have computer or internet capability, but almost everybody has a phone.”

July 06, 2020

Erik Cassano, 216-987-3577 or erik.cassano@tri-c.edu