Cañada Hosts First-ever In-Person/Virtual Opening Day

Cañada College held its first combined format Opening Day celebration on August 17 and it was a success! The Opening session was held in a hybrid format with 40 employees participating in person and more than 110 joining virtually.  The Cañadians who attended in person enjoyed catching up over breakfast on the Building 23 patio with beautiful views of the morning fog rolling through the trees.

Opening session was live streamed from the Building 23 patio and the theme of the day was Recovery with Equity. With that focus in mind, remarks from college leadership included progress and on-going challenges in addressing the needs of our students and community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cañada’s three Vice Presidents provided updates on guidance from the State and District leadership and how the College plans to chart its course for this academic year and beyond. There was a five-minute transitional break for in-person attendees to move from the patio into a HyFlex classroom in Building 23 where the opening session concluded with a presentation from the Career Ladders Project and report outs from the campus-wide Leadership Retreat, EMP and Strategic Enrollment Management Plan.

Cañada staff and faculty presenters provided a diverse array of topics for the morning and afternoon concurrent sessions. Feedback from the campus community on the hybrid format was positive. They shared that it was a good experience overall and the virtual attendees felt like they were there in person due to the strong audio and sound. Many faculty members commented that attending the session made them feel more comfortable about multi-modal teaching formats.

A special thank you to Cañada’s Flex Day Planning team and presenters as well as our Facilities, ITS and Marketing teams who played an integral part in ensuring the success of the first in person and virtual event. For those who were unable to attend, please find a recording of the Cañada Opening Day program, Flex slide deck and other resources and presentation items.