Prior to 2018, our students did mostly computer work. That went fairly well but I wanted to give them a better hands on experience. Starting with the 2018-2019 class we moved our students to assist with laboratory testing in our soils lab. That change exceeded our expectations for both us and the students. That was going great in 2019-2020 until everything changed. The pandemic hits and suddenly we are social distancing in the lab, many of our employees are off-site or on staggered shifts, and our students are off-site.
We shifted quickly to computer based work for the students. This work is different than what they are trained for. We took steps to make this work, including:
Using Zoom for training sessions, including screen sharing.
Sending an evening email to the next day’s student worker. They expect it and open it up first thing and follow the directions. (They also email us when we forget to send it!)
Having all of our students use the same email address. That way they can learn from other student’s mistakes and pick up where the other student left off.
Teaching students to take “Screenshots” and send them over when they have a question.
Here are some of the work items our students have been doing remotely:
We shifted quickly to computer based work for the students. This work is different than what they are trained for. We took steps to make this work, including:
Using Zoom for training sessions, including screen sharing.
Sending an evening email to the next day’s student worker. They expect it and open it up first thing and follow the directions. (They also email us when we forget to send it!)
Having all of our students use the same email address. That way they can learn from other student’s mistakes and pick up where the other student left off.
Teaching students to take “Screenshots” and send them over when they have a question.
Here are some of the work items our students have been doing remotely:
- Typing soil lab data into a software program
- Producing maps through AutoCAD
- Typing and producing concrete testing reports
- Helping with file management as they organize folders on our cloud-based server
This is not ideal! One day again we will have smiling students in the office and the lab. But just like our other employees have done, we are making the best of this situation. No question they’ve continued to work hard in trying to learn and get better. It’s been a challenge, but it’s been worth it."
Jay Alexander
Student Supervisor
SAECO