It has been over a year since the coronavirus pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of life, including educational learning. 

Director of the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) Perry VanKirk Career Academy Eddie Diaz says the transition was challenging when the pandemic began but he believes making the change to an online learning model has helped, but didn’t alleviate all the issues including building relationships. 

“Frankly, the relationship building was probably the biggest challenge. Students, especially younger students, need to develop relationships with the people they are going to school with including their instructors and it was more difficult. As college staff, we brainstormed and we found different ways to try and get connections with our students, (and) provide more supports.”

Diaz tells Raccoon Valley Radio the last year has been a good learning experience but DMACC will be transitioning back to face-to-face learning for the upcoming year. Welding instructor with DMACC Jim VonBehren says teachers remained vigilant as they continued instructing.

“We just stayed very diligent with the masks, the cleaning, the distance. I think the high school kids picked it up right away, they do it at school, they come to DMACC it’s no different.”

Diaz says there were other challenges including technology which would sometimes make things difficult if it wasn’t working properly.