The staff at Durham College are used to hosting a loud and busy spring open house. However, due to COVID-19, things will be looking a lot more pixelated this year.
This year’s spring open house will take place online on Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to noon featuring live interaction with faculty and staff. It will be available through the school’s website and students can pre-register at durhamcollege.ca/openhouse
Student recruitment manager, Nicole Gilkes, is helping to prepare the virtual open house.
She is helping to find solutions to questions such as how students’ questions will be answered, where they will find information, what platform they will be using and much more.
“So, let’s say they had a question about admissions, they can click on the admissions tab and that will lead them to a new page that will then give them a ton of information just about admissions in general but then it will have a chat function,” she said.
Gilkes said there will be a web page with multiple links available where students can click to find more information about their program specifically.
“There’s one for financial aid, athletics, residence, pathways and credit transfers, so a lot of the services will also be represented,” she said.
Durham College also has a web page where prospective students can fill out a form to register for the event and receive more information from recruitment officers.
For anyone who can’t make it to the virtual open house, Durham College is currently offering weekly webinars to find out more information about specific programs and the college itself.
Gilkes and her team are responsible for the weekly webinars where prospective students can join and ask questions about their courses, admissions and much more.
Durham College is also offering daily live chats with recruitment officers. These are available from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Although it may feel like a strange time, she says Durham College hopes to make this virtual open house as easy as possible.
“So, we’re trying to replicate the in-person event as much as possible to give, hopefully, still a similar experience,” said Gilkes.
The college is also offering the chance to win a $1,000 credit towards tuition for anyone who attends the virtual open house.
Anyone with questions prior to the open house is encouraged to contact Durham College via phone or email.
“So, they can call us anytime or email is actually better right now just because we’re not in the office to answer the phone but we are returning the voicemails,” said Gilkes. The email is recruitment@durhamcollege.ca.
