BLU E & W H I T E PAG E 1 2
Moving Online: An Update from the Education & Student Life Department According to Google, use of the search term ‘unprecedented’ increased tenfold between January and March of this year. For Andrew’s, 2020 was expected to present at least one unprecedented challenge: managing the largest student population increase in the College’s history (thanks to the opening of the Thyne Reid Link building). But it was of course a different unprecedented challenge that transformed the College from a vibrant, bustling community of excited adults (some of whom were just starting to penetrate the surface of collegiate life) into an online community longing, like the rest of the world, for things to get back to normal. When the College campus closed in March, the Education & Student Life Department (which is responsible for running tutorials, competitions, online events, leadership training, music programs, well-being programs, and so on) resolved to adapt – rather than suspend – programs. Fortunately, this approach proved to be the right one. Six weeks after College programs had moved online, the Department’s new Zoom accounts had already recorded more than 200,000 minutes of tutorials, mentoring sessions, professional development
sessions, professional skills workshops, and other online activities involving more than 4,500 participants in 15 countries. The experience of moving online has highlighted several things. The first is how valuable the connection between students and the broader College community can be. From Councillors to alumni to parents, many friends of College have agreed to ‘pitch in’. Already, many have participated in the Drews Forum, a platform dedicated to sharing interesting, challenging and useful ideas and information with current students; more than a dozen talks have already taken place, traversing topics such as presentation skills, starting your own brewery, working in the construction industry and rowing 5,000km across the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, others have taken part in the College’s new language courses, which are intended to give students of any faculty the chance to learn a second, third or fourth language. Our most popular language tutor is a current student’s parent (who has been voluntarily running French
