Nearly 16 months after essentially shutting down in-person classes, Miller-Motte College in Chattanooga is bringing back students to its campus.
On March 20, 2020, Miller-Motte made the switch to virtual teaching amid the outbreak of the coronavirus, said Jay Frank, the college's executive director, on Wednesday at its Lee Highway site.
Some students eventually returned for labs in medical or dental programs, but in groups of less than nine, Frank said.
"They've got to get skills you can't get virtually," he said. "Other programs were all delivered virtually."
The private, proprietary college held virtual town hall meetings over the past year or so to keep students engaged, Frank said. There were worries about students needing the structured, organized environment on the campus, and them having to deal with children and other distractions while trying to learn, he said.
"We didn't see a bunch of fall-off," Frank said about the college that typically enrolls about 300 students. "We didn't see a significant spike in students withdrawing from school."
Barbara Kitchens, the surgical technology program director, said faculty and students made "a pretty good transition" to virtual instruction.
"We had to do a lot of fast learning. The students were good about being patient," she said. "We tried to make it interactive."
Candie Perry, a student in the program since January, said she's learning about what goes on in and out of a hospital emergency room. While classes had included virtual training, the Cleveland, Tennessee, woman said it's helpful that it has moved to all in-person now.
"It helps us to be more hands on," Perry said.
Tiffany Blevins, the dental assisting program director, said there was "a big learning curve" when classes went virtual.
"It was challenging at first," she said.
Countess Starling, a student from Chattanooga in the program, said she likes being back in person.
"It's great," she said as instructors show her and other students needed dental assisting skills.
Frank said that as students return in person, the college is making mask-wearing optional. Also, there's cleaning after classes and in the evenings, he said, adding they're following Hamilton County Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Miller-Motte College has 10 campuses across Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Each campus offers a variety of career pathway programs, degrees and certificates in vocational and trades-based education.
Frank said the college doesn't participate in the Tennessee Promise or Tennessee Reconnect scholarship programs, which provides two years of tuition free instruction at community colleges and other schools. He said Miller-Motte is aimed at training students in their fields of study as quickly as possible so there is "that return on investment."
Also, Frank said, class sizes tend to be smaller at Miller-Motte than in state community colleges, and it tries to work on students' so-called "soft skills" so they thrive in the workplace.
He said that in Chattanooga, the college has about 31,000 square feet at its Lee Highway location. In addition, it has a satellite site off Amnicola Highway with about 17,000 square feet.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.