{"id":3194,"date":"2020-10-19T12:54:11","date_gmt":"2020-10-19T16:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/marketing\/?p=3194"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:36:53","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:36:53","slug":"ma-community-colleges-continue-remote-online-and-hybrid-learning-for-spring-2021-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/2020\/10\/19\/ma-community-colleges-continue-remote-online-and-hybrid-learning-for-spring-2021-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"MA Community Colleges Continue Remote, Online, and Hybrid Learning for Spring 2021 Semester"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BOSTON \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>Today the Presidents from the\u00a0fifteen\u00a0Massachusetts Community Colleges announced in a joint statement that their colleges would all be continuing to offer primarily remote, online, and hybrid learning, with limited in-person courses, in the Spring 2021 semester.<\/p>\n<p>\"As Presidents of the\u00a0fifteen\u00a0Massachusetts Community Colleges, monitoring public health conditions, ensuring safety for our campus community, and maintaining high-quality academic instruction are top priorities during this pandemic.\u00a0<strong>Therefore, the\u00a0fifteen\u00a0community colleges will continue to offer primarily remote, online, and hybrid learning, with limited in-person courses, in the Spring 2021 semester.\u00a0<\/strong>Each college will continue to provide students with the services and support they need to succeed while tracking local public health conditions. We are hopeful that making this decision early will give our students, faculty, and staff, who are already balancing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession, the necessary time to prepare for the Spring semester. We look forward to serving all who rely on Massachusetts Community Colleges for an affordable, safe, and flexible higher education experience.\"<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a015\u00a0community\u00a0colleges\u00a0offered high-quality\u00a0online and remote course\u00a0options\u00a0for students\u00a0prior to the\u00a0pandemic, but\u00a0these were\u00a0expanded\u00a0in preparation for the Fall semester\u00a0to meet the demands of COVID-19.\u00a0Students can\u00a0enroll in\u00a0traditional academic degree programs\u00a0like engineering or\u00a0nursing, or\u00a0can\u00a0participate in short-term training programs such as IT, Certified Nursing Assistant or Manufacturing, and more.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Massachusetts Community\u00a0Colleges\u00a0educate nearly half of all students in the Commonwealth's public higher education system, serving the\u00a0largest\u00a0share\u00a0of first-generation\u00a0students, low-income\u00a0students, and students of color.\u00a0Current and former students\u00a0have been\u00a0on the frontlines\u00a0of\u00a0the COVID-19 pandemic\u00a0as nurses, respiratory therapists, CNAs,\u00a0hospitality and service industry workers,\u00a0among others.\u00a0Faculty and staff\u00a0at the community colleges\u00a0have transitioned traditional supports\u00a0to provide virtual\u00a0services\u00a0to\u00a0students\u00a0impacted\u00a0COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>With the state facing a 9.6% unemployment rate\u00a0in September, many families and students still face uncertain financial futures. The community colleges remain the most affordable higher education opportunity,\u00a0providing\u00a0flexible\u00a0options\u00a0for students who want\u00a0to earn a high-quality education\u00a0close to home.\u00a0They also\u00a0serve as critical local and statewide economic engines, training and educating the workforce through credit and noncredit offerings.\u00a0At a time when many workers will have to be retrained, re-skilled, and further educated to find\u00a0new careers in\u00a0this new economy,\u00a0the\u00a0community\u00a0colleges offer\u00a0the necessary education and\u00a0training in high-demand fields.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOSTON \u2013\u00a0Today the Presidents from the\u00a0fifteen\u00a0Massachusetts Community Colleges announced in a joint statement that their colleges would all be continuing to offer primarily remote, online, and hybrid learning, with limited in-person courses, in the Spring 2021 semester. \"As Presidents of the\u00a0fifteen\u00a0Massachusetts Community Colleges, monitoring public health conditions, ensuring safety for our campus community, and maintaining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}