By Michael Piwowarski
UNIVERSITY CENTER – It’s like turning your bedroom into your own mini-campus!
Delta College is physically closed but with online learning continuing, there are still ways for students to get more from their college experience.
On Delta’s coronavirus web page, there is a list of contacts for every department, both by phone and email.
eLearning is one of the more notable departments here, since it’s clearly going to be the center of all the classes that now have to go completely online. Students who need help with eLearning can go to their resources page for more information and guidance, including FAQs and tutorials.
In addition, here are a couple major on-campus resources that are still available remotely.
Shush! You’re in the library.
“What I would like to stress is that we’re open for business and here to help!”
Head librarian Michelle Pratt points out that, while the Delta College library is physically inaccessible thanks to the building’s closure to the public, their online presence is here to stay.
“Since most of our services are online, there’s really little change from our normal day to day operations,” says Pratt.
Librarians continue to monitor the online chat and their email throughout their regular open hours – Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Services offered by the Delta library include online databases and ebooks, and the Ask a Librarian chat feature, which are accessible through their Delta Portal page.
“To put things in perspective […] we have about 50,000 print books but over 200,000 e-books,” says Pratt. “While we might not have the exact ebook that we have in print, the librarians can help you find something similar.”
Pratt lists the following resources that the library has added, in addition to the articles they already have uploaded to their own online database:
- Statistical Abstracts of the United States
- Oxford English Dictionary
- JSTOR (Journal Storage)
- DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
- R2 (medical and nursing e-books)
- ProQuest Central (database to search articles)
- Chilton Library (reliable automotive help 24/7)
More information is available on the library’s Coronavirus FAQ page, which also emphasizes that the due date for all checked-out books has been changed to Friday, May 1, in light of the COVID-19 closure. So don’t worry if you’re hanging on to that history book that you checked out for a research paper. Just make sure you don’t lose it!
T/LC and WRIT Center offer a helping hand
The Teaching and Learning Center offers tutoring services in a variety of disciplines, from accounting and business to biology and mathematics.
With everything happening remotely, the T/LC still offers online services for students who need help mastering a subject. Questions can be submitted via CyberTutor, which is available at the Delta portal.
Depending on the question, a tutor will respond by offering guidance on the subject, set up a live Zoom or phone conference appointment, or assist via both asynchronous and synchronous means of communication.
The WRIT Center, which operates within the Delta library, is also closed to in-person tutoring and conferences, but they are still operating remotely.
This is a resource that students can use if they need help with an essay in class. From gathering ideas to looking over the final draft, WRIT Center tutors aim to coach writers through every stage of the writing process.
An online submission form is available at the WRIT Center’s portal page (go to portal.delta.edu, log in with your Delta credentials and access from the Student Resources directory).
Students can submit their assignment as a Word document and get written feedback within two business days. According to the website, a Zoom conference may be held as well.
Danielle Peterson, manager of the Teaching/Learning Center, told the Collegiate that the T/LC and WRIT Center will release an updated form in the near future to request live Zoom conferences or phone appointments.
The WRIT Center’s online-only hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
