EKU Regional Campuses Support Students in Transition to Remote Learning

Remote learning is not new to EKU’s regional students. Often, it is the regional campuses where remote learning has been perfected by both students and faculty.

When students, faculty, and staff were informed that the 2020 spring semester would need to be finished using remote learning and teaching practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic, E-Presence usage was top of mind.

E-Presence is EKU’s state-of-the-art videoconferencing system powered by Zoom that allows professors at the Richmond campus to deliver instruction to students at the four regional campuses located in Manchester, Corbin, Hazard, and Lancaster.

Now, the entire EKU community has been granted access to E-Presence for the transition to online learning. Students can connect via phone, tablet, or computer from home directly to their instructor.

“When the pandemic occurred, instructors were reaching out wanting an easy-to-use videoconferencing solution for their classes,” Danny Lewis, technology services coordinator and E-Presence administrator said. “EKU Regional Programming and the regional campuses stepped up to offer E-Presence Zoom licenses for anyone at EKU needing it for instruction and student engagement.”

The regional campuses are also committed to handling additional needs of students during the transition to remote learning. In-person services such as tutoring, counseling and academic advising have switched to online communication via phone, email, Skype, Zoom, Blackboard, and Facebook Live. EKU campuses also have laptops available for student loan.

To assist students who may not have internet access at home, EKU is providing wi-fi hot spots around its campuses. Wi-Fi is available in the parking lots of the Corbin and Manchester campuses. Students, faculty, and staff may log in to the secure network using their normal EKU username and password. Public access is available on the EKU Guest network which does not require a user login.

“The resiliency of our faculty, staff and students in these unprecedented times continues to amaze me,” Terry Gray, director of the East and South Region Campuses said. “Our transition and continuing adjustments only exemplifies the strength and determination of our campuses, faculty, staff and students and honors me to be part of #EKUEverywhere and #TeamKentucky.”

For more information about EKU’s transition to remote learning and online resources, visit www.remotelearning.eku.edu. Additional resources for regional students can be found at www.regionalcampuses.eku.edu.

Published on April 08, 2020