Northeast State has secured a $542,737 grant to create a one-stop drive-through center that will allow students to handle simple admissions and financial aid questions and transactions.
The project will also fund the relocation of campus police operations, and the purchase of technology to aid online instruction and student services.
The grant is part of Gov. Bill Lee’s $81 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) funding available for K-12 schools and higher education institutions. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is administering the funds.
The one-stop center’s drive-through and interior will be designed with social distancing guidelines to promote the health and safety of students and staff. The facility will have three service windows that can handle admissions and financial aid queries, tuition payments, computer equipment requests, and other tasks.
The Welcome Center on Northeast State’s Blountville campus.
The Welcome Center improvements include a drive-through lane, computer networking, and electrical upgrades, signage, and landscaping. The project’s anticipated completion date is late fall.
“With the ever-changing COVID-19 situation, we know there are many reasons students may not be able to access campus offices,” said Jennifer Starling, assistant vice president for Student Success. “The center will allow the convenience of a protected visit that will let students transact business and then be on their way.”
Currently, the Welcome Center houses police operations. The grant will allow the chief of police and officers to move to a central location in the Student Services Building, providing a more efficient workspace and technology upgrades.
The grant includes several technology-related improvements to help with student learning. The shift to online courses in the spring found some students struggling with hardware, software, and internet concerns. To help, the College will purchase laptops, webcams, and other equipment for loan to students who do not have the means to access online instruction properly.
To limit the impact of social distancing guidelines on classroom capacities, the College will also outfit 30 classrooms with Zoom meeting technology. This equipment, which includes cameras, microphones, and other hardware, will allow instructors to use synchronous Zoom and synchronous hybrid Zoom formats. This semester, Northeast State has almost 300 sections using Zoom for instruction.
Also, the grant will fund Desire2Learn training for faculty. D2L is a learning management system that faculty use to organize course content. The move to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a greater need for expertise with D2L, and the grant will compensate faculty for required training outside of regular work hours.
Finally, the grant will allow the College to purchase FreshWorks software, a cloud-based system for remote delivery of student services across campus. The software provides a chat-bot for live communication, artificial intelligence to answer frequently asked questions, a case management system, and analytics to suggest areas of improvement.
Northeast State has secured a $542,737 grant to create a one-stop drive-through center that will allow students to handle simple admissions and financial aid questions and transactions.
The project will also fund the relocation of campus police operations, and the purchase of technology to aid online instruction and student services.
The grant is part of Gov. Bill Lee’s $81 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) funding available for K-12 schools and higher education institutions. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is administering the funds.
The one-stop center’s drive-through and interior will be designed with social distancing guidelines to promote the health and safety of students and staff. The facility will have three service windows that can handle admissions and financial aid queries, tuition payments, computer equipment requests, and other tasks.
The Welcome Center improvements include a drive-through lane, computer networking, and electrical upgrades, signage, and landscaping. The project’s anticipated completion date is late fall.
“With the ever-changing COVID-19 situation, we know there are many reasons students may not be able to access campus offices,” said Jennifer Starling, assistant vice president for Student Success. “The center will allow the convenience of a protected visit that will let students transact business and then be on their way.”
Currently, the Welcome Center houses police operations. The grant will allow the chief of police and officers to move to a central location in the Student Services Building, providing a more efficient workspace and technology upgrades.
The grant includes several technology-related improvements to help with student learning. The shift to online courses in the spring found some students struggling with hardware, software, and internet concerns. To help, the College will purchase laptops, webcams, and other equipment for loan to students who do not have the means to access online instruction properly.
To limit the impact of social distancing guidelines on classroom capacities, the College will also outfit 30 classrooms with Zoom meeting technology. This equipment, which includes cameras, microphones, and other hardware, will allow instructors to use synchronous Zoom and synchronous hybrid Zoom formats. This semester, Northeast State has almost 300 sections using Zoom for instruction.
Also, the grant will fund Desire2Learn training for faculty. D2L is a learning management system that faculty use to organize course content. The move to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a greater need for expertise with D2L, and the grant will compensate faculty for required training outside of regular work hours.
Finally, the grant will allow the College to purchase FreshWorks software, a cloud-based system for remote delivery of student services across campus. The software provides a chat-bot for live communication, artificial intelligence to answer frequently asked questions, a case management system, and analytics to suggest areas of improvement.
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