COLUMBUS, Ind — As the pandemic continues, C4 Columbus Area Career Connection is utilizing a different platform to educate students and families about its offerings.
C4 will hold a “virtual open house” from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday. At a recent school board meeting, C4 director Gene Hack gave a preview of the event’s virtual platform, which is not yet open to the public. At the time of the event, a link for the virtual open house will go live at bcscschools.org/c4.
“We have new challenges this year, so we’ve had to think outside of the box,” Hack said. “Originally, we were thinking, ‘OK, we’re going to get through this. Second semester, we’ll all be good, we’ll all be back face-to-face.’ Well, that’s not the case.”
The virtual open house utilizes the media creation platform Genially and is also facilitated through Midwest Virtual Experiences, a sub-brand of ASH Interactive. Support staff members have also been involved with making the virtual event possible, Hack said.
C4 has worked to replicate its in-person approach through the online format. The initial page for the virtual open house provides a video and options to view the program directory, informational resources about C4 and staff information. Resources include but are not limited to Frequently Asked Questions, former student testimonials, parent testimonials and a course guide.
The program directory has links to pages for different C4 programs. Hack said that each program page has a video from a teacher, a video from a current student and information about courses. Those attending will be able to take virtual tours of classrooms and labs.
There will be Zoom links on program pages so that parents can meet with staff, teachers and student ambassadors during the event. Each meeting will be limited to 100 participants.
C4 also plans to use this platform for this year’s eighth grade course fair and sixth grade tours as well. He said that he feels “very optimistic” about the format and how it can be used in the future.
“We’ve already started thinking how we use this tool to engage and reinforce the activities that we have in place already,” he said. “So we’ll have this for a year, under our current contract … and then we can renew, if need be.”
