Holistic approach to online learning: Providing a scaffold for learners

Abstract

The COVID-19 global pandemic necessitated rapid changes to teaching strategies in higher education. Moving an undergraduate nursing course from the traditional classroom to fully online created interesting challenges. Because much of our teaching content was already designed for the flipped learning environment (FLE), we were able to adapt to a virtual face-to-face (VFF) experience that reached every student with very little disruption to the FLE. To ensure a successful rapid pivot we prepared our students to ‘go live’ in our online classroom by offering a small, social, Virtual Happy Hour event for 112 students in the week prior to our classes resuming.