We hope you are staying dry out there, L.A. — and safe.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost three years since the start of the pandemic forced students of all levels to do their schooling remotely. For some community college students, remote learning was already familiar — 1 in 5 were already enrolled in online classes — but that number jumped at the height of the pandemic and has remained high.
Today, about 50% of students in the Los Angeles Community College District are still remote. Chancellor Francisco Rodriguez said the goal is to reduce that further and get more people back on campus, but he promises Zoom will never go away. It has to be a balance.
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The reality is that a lot of community college students need that flexibility of an online course as many are working full time or have families to care for. But pre-pandemic studies show that students don’t perform as well online.
My colleague Jackie Orchard spoke to students about the mix of online vs. in person and most agree that it’s important to have options. Some would not be able to attend class were it not for Zoom; others, like Brando Munoz, an aircraft maintenance student at West Los Angeles College, need to feel that campus vibe.
“I think it's just the ambience,” Munoz said. “You see students walking around, studying and whatnot. I feel like it kind of encourages you to do better.”
Jackie dug more into how LACCD is assessing its future curriculum and how it’ll be offered. You can read her story here.
As always, stay happy and healthy, folks. There’s more news below — just keep reading.
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The Academy Awards are this Sunday and if you are anything like us you’ll be watching the ceremony from the red carpet fashion walk through to the finale of that Best Picture announcement. We know you have your favorites. We do, too.
There will ALWAYS be upsets. Um, Shakespeare in Love anyone? But there are also a few categories where certain nominees just have a lock. My colleague John Horn is pretty certain of a few of these folks so, if you want to take it all in your Oscar pool, check out his picks here.
While you are at it, go ahead and kill it in the snack department, too, with these recipes named for some of your favorite “noms” (wink wink).
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