PAXTON, Mass. - In an effort to help support students going through remote learning, Anna Maria College is offering a course this fall.

The one-credit class on skills and strategies for online learning uses different ways to work in the remote world as well as how to make an academic plan and communicate effectively with faculty and other students.

The program was piloted with honors students and then offered last summer. Anna Maria's Vice President for Academic Affairs, Christine Holmes, says they decided to offer it for students this fall because of the success they had seen previously.

“We found the retention rate increased because of it and also the GPA increase because of it," Holmes said. “So we are offering it again, a silver lining of COVID. We are offering this course again in the fall for all of incoming freshman students and we are offering it to all of our current students who are still interested in maybe getting a little ahead of themselves and better with their academic planning and learning."

Holmes said this will give them skills beyond just learning in the classroom, especially as more jobs have gone remote as a result of the pandemic.