Editorial: Late Start Classes

Editorial: Late Start Classes

Online at the Pierce College website, as the main page goes through its slideshow depicting some things available at Pierce, there is a quick slide that shows Alice in Wonderland with the rabbit with his timepiece and Alice looking at him as he runs. The caption reads “Find Late Start Classes on the Spring Schedules Page.” This image appears for only a quick five seconds. This is one of the only ways that the campus is referring students to these late classes.

Promoting these 73 different late start classes and looking for those effective ways to enroll different students is important. This can improve the attendance for the mid-semester courses and make it so that everyone can get involved or at least make sure to inform the college public that they exist.

The school should make the late start classes a prominent feature on the front page during the registration process because hiding them in the spring schedules page does not emphasize their importance. Moorpark College web page has placed a direct link to their late start courses on their home web page, while Pierce does not give out a direct link for easy access.

Each semester college students enroll in either part-time or full-time schooling. As a semester rolls along students are given the option to sign up for some courses that are available mid-semester. This can benefit those who work and are able to take classes that they couldn’t have taken when the spring semester began. It can benefit students who want to spend more time going to school or to advance their curriculum.

So that students can know that these classes are available, advertising can come into play. Emailing students would be one way to get the word out. Posting information on Canvas could work as well because it could tell students what classes might be of interest to them. Social media sites could be another way to promote the classes to tech savvy students. Putting an advertisement in the school’s Roundup newspaper could help because students as well as faculty look through it weekly, online and in print.

For students who do not have access to the internet, more of the fliers that have been placed around campus can be placed in relevant classrooms where these subjects are taught so professors teaching a late class can promote them. Fliers could also be placed in the busier areas of the campus.

There is an advertisement on the main marquee at the school entrance, which can get the word out to students who walk by or pass by the marquee. The marquee inside the school on the mall remains broken, which could be a great way to promote classes if it were up and running because many students walk by it on their way to class or as they go about campus. Students will have a better chance of knowing about late courses available in these many ways.