Inuit post-secondary programs get back to learning

Nunavut Sivuniksavut students are back in class this week—remotely—while the Ottawa-based post-secondary program tries its hand at online learning.

NS educators and program co-ordinators spent the summer thinking about how to engage with their students, without putting any of them at risk of COVID-19. There continue to be no cases of the virus in the territory.

Program co-ordinators opted for online, at-home learning, at least for the fall. There are 38 first-year students enrolled at NS this year, based in nine different Nunavut communities, as well as 12 second-year students.

In communities where there are more than a couple of students, NS has set up learning hubs—such as Iqaluit’s museum and Arviat’s library—spaces where students can get online together to work with their Ottawa-based instructors.

The program is also leaning on its Nunavut-based graduates, elders and communities to be a part of student learning this year, said NS co-ordinator Morley Hanson.

“Although there’s disappointment in missing out on all the experiential part of all the on-site learning, they are in their communities,” Hanson said. “They have access to all the people who’ve been involved in the whole story they’re learning about.

“We’re building into all of our courses a lot of community engagement.”

Hanson hopes that personal connection will help make up for the distance between students and their instructors.

Students received a USB key by mail in August, pre-loaded with many of the documents they’ll need for the fall semester. The program was also able to lend laptops to students who needed them.

Since classes began on Monday, Aug. 31, Hanson said notifications on the social media app that students use to communicate with instructors and each other have been dinging non-stop.

“We’re working to translate our approach here to something that works online, and that’s no easy task,” Hanson said.

“It’s really the relationship with students and their engagement to the material that we want to keep up.”

Hanson said they’ll reassess the online model at the end of 2020.

Nunavik students back in class

Across the border in Quebec, Nunavik Sivunitsavut is gearing up for orientation week before classes at the Montreal-based program begin on Sept. 15.

The Nunavik version of the post-secondary program is taking a different approach, opting to host students in class this fall.

The Montreal program has a bit more room than its Ottawa counterpart to ensure students keep their distance, with a small cohort this year of just 13.

“We will be holding in-person classes, with social distancing and masks,” said NS interim co-ordinator James Vandenberg.

“We had originally planned on going fully online, but there was a strong demand from the incoming students to have in-person classes, coupled with the Ministry of Higher Education’s guidelines preferring in-person to online classes.

“If the situation in Montreal and Quebec changes, we are preparing a backup plan of online classes.”

The program developed safety protocols in collaboration with John Abbott College, which also hosts a cohort of students from Nunavik. Students will be required to wear masks in class, keep a distance from other students and regularly sanitize their hands.

Instructors will be using an online platform that would make it easy for students to continue learning online, should they become sick and need to stay home.

Nunavik students studying at NS will live at the Montreal residence Evo, which is located within walking distance of the Westmount program.

Nunavik Sivunitsavut saw 11 graduates from its 2019-20 year. A number of students in that cohort left the program once it shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic; they’ve been invited back to re-do their winter semester in 2021.