This Fall is a challenging time for higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily altered how we do everything. Our students, however, look to State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF), for continuity and progression in their lives. They do not want to put their futures off until things return to “normal,” and we will provide nothing less than a high-quality SCF education.

Rising to the challenge, we committed to giving our students a solution based on creativity, innovation and compassion. We recognized that if we gave students the choice of how they could take their classes, we could meet their needs and eliminate barriers to their efforts to pursue higher education. We are a month into our Fall term and students are taking courses online, face-to-face on campus, or Go Live with SCF Online. Our Flex Start classes that begin throughout this term will offer the same options. This Fall, I am getting firsthand experience with the different options available to our students. I have several more classes to attend – both physically and virtually – but I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. Our faculty are going above and beyond to ensure that our students get the best experience possible from their classes.

Go Live with SCF Online is a new online format created to allow online students to attend class at a fixed time through Microsoft Teams. I attended a Go Live American history class taught by Associate Professor Phil Travis of SCF’s Social and Behavioral Sciences Department. Unlike a traditional online class, Go Live allows professors live interaction with their students and the ability to share course content on the screen. I found the students to be very engaged and Professor Travis was able to build live polling into the class to broaden the conversation. We are creating Go Live best practices with every session and I believe it will become very popular with students.

About one-third of SCF’s classes this Fall are face-to-face. Professors and students are wearing masks, and in most classrooms, each student sits behind a three-sided plexiglass shield. I attended an English 1101 class taught by SCF Associate Professor Robin Rogers, one of five face-to-face courses she is teaching this term. I was impressed with the creativity she brought into the classroom to get students engaged in the topic. Students who chose face-to-face are relishing the classroom experience and their energy is evident. The safety measures in the classroom are not an impediment to their learning.

SCF has a state-of-the-art nursing Simulation Center on the Lakewood Ranch Campus, an impressive facility I love to visit and bring community members to tour. With in-hospital clinical opportunities limited due to COVID-19, our Simulation Center is filling the gap in our students’ experience. Led by Deb Allish, Director of the Simulation Center, SCF has increased the use of human patient simulators to ensure a consistent experience for every student, make learning objectives hands-on with real-time feedback, and address learning gaps. After observing our simulation training in action, I know that SCF will continue to provide the best-trained nurses to our hospitals.

Rising to the pandemic challenge took a college-wide change in mindset, and I could not be more impressed with the different ways of thinking of our faculty and academic leadership. It is creativity through necessity that is making a lasting positive change to our institution.

Dr. Carol F. Probstfeld is the President of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.