By Alexandra Blockton
ablockton@lc.edu

According to Lewis and Clark’s website, since March 20, 2020 the governor ordered the state of Illinois, including Lewis and Clark Community College (L&C) to close at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday March 21, 2020 and will not be able to reopen until after the statewide “shelter-in-place” order is lifted. All academic instruction will be moving online or rescheduled to a later date. Students, faculty and staff are highly encouraged to check their L&C email account for further information.

As of Monday March 30, all classes will resume online. Even if your class was not an online class prior to this pandemic, it will now be online. All students should be able to log into Blackboard on L&C’s website. This may be a difficult time for some students especially if they do not have the electronic devices to be able to attend their online classes and students having to transition from being an in-class student to going online for class. It is best for students to email their instructors to be able to receive the accurate route to go in obtaining the tools you need to become successful. Each department is different and instructors will be able to guide you.

As a result of the pandemic, more than 118,000 public and private schools in 45 states have closed, affecting 53 million students, according to a tally kept by Education Week.

“We’re about to go into the very big unknown, but we’re excited,” New York City schools chancellor Richard Carranza said Friday on March 23, 2020 in an article named “The COVID-19’s Impact in the U.S.” by The Associated Press. To him, it is an opportunity to take the concept to a grand scale.

In the meantime, other experts do not seem to be so optimistic. It is only a small amount of U.S. educators that have been trained to teach effective online learning. This is a very stressful time for teachers, families and students.