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<\/a>Despite the difficulty in scheduling, students were able to return in late May for a new hybrid semester with online lectures and in-person practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy main emotion was relief,\u201d says third-year Dental Hygiene student Julia Balogh. \u201cI know a lot of people were pretty nervous about the fact that we were coming back. Everybody was quite unsure about the changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balogh says that with current safety requirements in place, there are some changes in protocol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are still some procedures we\u2019re not allowed to do right now, such as things that require aerosol production,\u201d she says. \u201cAnything that\u2019s considered \u2018high risk.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayre stresses that despite this, the curriculum hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s changed is that we\u2019re offering pandemic education and what that looks like, right at the front of the program,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
While the second- and third-year students of the dental programs have made a smooth transition, there is growing concern for the incoming class of first-year students, who will likely have more of a learning curve due to the new procedures in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we [the returning students] were all able to adapt\u2014we\u2019re all used to being held to a high standard in terms of protocols for safety,\u201d says Balogh.\u00a0\u201cThe people coming in this year, the new hygiene students, are at a great disadvantage because they don\u2019t get the class time together to bond as students and get to know each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balogh says that online schooling can\u2019t replace the in-person experience; the organic relationships made in the classroom are not something that can be found in online meet-and-greets, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe actual presence of having people physically together in a class can’t really be replicated,\u201d says Balogh. \u201cIt\u2019s never going to be quite the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
This challenge has not only arisen for the dental programs\u2014it\u2019s the same for every Camosun program that has transitioned to\u00a0online learning for the 2020-2021 school year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very different, the sort of relational piece,\u201d says Hayre about the first days of school.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, most classes would have a big group introduction, with time for the orientation and the added bonuses of snacks, fun activities, and a chance for students to connect with their peers. This year, all the orientation content was completely online. And for students like Balogh, the ramifications of being online will continue through the semester.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would rely so much on others for help all the time,\u201d says Balogh. \u201cYou can still get that but it’s not the same when it’s not face-to-face. I think having friends in the program and really getting to know each other instills so much more confidence in yourself and in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the plethora of challenges facing the oncoming school year, the students of the dental programs are striving to band together and make the best of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I hope it’s not permanent,\u201d says Balogh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The new semester has brought many new changes to campus, including changes in procedure for the Dental Hygiene and Certified Dental Assistant programs. These courses were the first to return to campus after the initial COVID-19 shutdown, and students and staff are currently getting back in the groove of in-person and online classes. \u201cIt has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19940"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19946,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19940\/revisions\/19946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}