Brent Gaudreau, an instructor in the massage therapy program, works on the online portion of his class. The program is now presented in a mixed format with theory being taught online and students on campus for hands on learning.
Lethbridge College has had to adjust how it presents classes due to COVID-19.
Face-to-face classes were shut down in March due to the pandemic, forcing instructors to scramble to figure out how classes would work this semester.
For most programs that meant moving to an online format, but for more hands-on programs, instructors faced a more difficult challenge. For the massage therapy program, it was even more of a challenge.
Instructor Brent Gaudreau says the process was a challenging one that took a lot of thought.
“Things have been interesting; we have had a number of challenges due to the practical nature of our program. We need to be able to provide students with hands-on learning opportunities, so that took a little bit of time. But the exemption process that we had to go through to be able to hold face-to-face sessions with our students was really manageable.”
To make sure students get the necessary experience they need, it means allowing the public into the college for massages.
The massage therapy program moved into a new lab this summer, allowing classes to be split into two separate rooms to help with social distancing.
“We have made some changes; this is the first year we have been in this space. We had a move over the summer from upstairs in the technology building down to here. It has made it a lot more possible for us to accommodate the general public with the restrictions that are put on all of us due to COVID-19,” said Gaudreau.
Students in the program seem to be happy with how the college has adjusted to the pandemic.
Codie Kemp a student in the program was surprised with how smooth the adjustment was.
“It’s better than I expected. I think that they have done a really good job of keeping us here in the college to be able to be hands-on with our program, which is the bulk of our workload.”
The program hasn’t needed to make many changes since they already followed strict health guidelines.
“The big changes that we’ve made are just the use of space. So, because we have two very large spaces now both with twelve tables in them, we’re able to accommodate a number of people while still considering social distancing between the members of the general public,” says Gaudreau. “A lot of the other things that were asked of us were things that we were already doing. The cleaning procedures we had and things like that are common practice in the massage industry.”
Kemp is happy with the changes so far saying the mix between online and in class has been good.
“This semester has been good. The biggest difference has been that we’re doing all of our lecture content from home through Zoom meetings and our class sizes for labs have been kind of cut in half. Half of us are in one lab space and half are in another lab space.”
The massage clinic is open to the public six days a week with every client being required to wear masks.
“The public has been really good about respecting wearing the mask through our massages. Nobody seems to be concerned about coming in for a massage,” said Kemp.
The clinic is open Tuesday through Thursday 5-9 p.m and Saturday from 9 a.m to 5 p.m.
