Some 160 new Bronx Community College students gathered online for two “Blackboard Open Sessions for Students: Ask the Experts” on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, hosted by Albert Robinson, Associate Director and Blackboard Domain Manager for BCC’s Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

“It went really well — and it was the first time we offered something like that,” said Associate Director Robinson. With his assistants, Delwar Sayeed and Rochelle Johnson “We began with questions about Blackboard. Then we opened the floor to any topic. The students really appreciated getting their questions answered on the spot. We had Wilma Rosario-Torres and Chenae Dennis from Financial Aid and Linda S. Mckernan from Student Success offering their advice,

“Some of the students were totally new to taking courses online. One said that she felt like they were alone. I told her ‘Never feel like you are alone. You can always reach out to somebody. Your first step when you are not sure of what to do in your course is to turn to your instructor. Or you can reach out to the department chair or Academic Affairs. That message was made clear in all of our student sessions.”

“I said ‘The one thing I don’t want you to do is give up. This is your education. Take charge of it. And the student answered, ‘Yes, I will do that.’ And that was a pretty touching moment. To help that student and all the other students who were listening. You know many must have had the same type of feeling.”