AWS Academy educators support students globally in the shift to online learning

To protect the health and safety of their students and faculty, higher education institutions around the world have made a quick and essential shift from in-person to online classes.

For some institutions and educators well-versed in online delivery, the transition has been smooth. Within the AWS Academy community, we’ve seen educators quickly shift their courses online to meet the needs of their students. Lina Quintero, AWS Academy accredited educator at ICESI in Colombia, for example, immediately began delivering her AWS Academy courses fully online when her institution shut its doors last month. Her approach was highlighted as one of “5 successful examples of virtual education during a pandemic” in La Semana.

For other institutions, the change has been rushed and disorienting. To help educators respond to these new challenges, the AWS Academy member community has come together to support their students and one another as they make the rapid and demanding transition to online teaching and learning.

Educators lend a hand across continents

To empower member institutions that might not be able to provide online learning at this time, the AWS Academy community has joined forces to support a new open and online AWS Academy Cloud Foundations course.

Available to any student who attends an AWS Academy member institution from now until June 30, 2020, this online and self-paced introductory course provides a detailed overview of cloud concepts and helps students prepare to take the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam. In addition to the AWS technical trainers who are supporting the course, AWS Academy accredited educators around the world are volunteering their time to serve as mentors and help our global community of students.

Ample, interactive learning resources

The course contains 20 hours of content and consists of hands-on labs, lecture videos, knowledge checks, reading materials, discussion forums, and live webinars supported by AWS Academy accredited educators, AWS technical trainers, and AWS solutions architects.

Taking an interactive and hands-on approach to remote learning is important right now. Noah Gift, an AWS Academy accredited educator at Duke University volunteering to support this course told us, “It is essential to have hands-on labs in learning cloud computing. This course provides interactive labs necessary to give educators and students the right material to succeed.”

Strong engagement among students globally

Providing educators with the resources they need to continue teaching meaningful skills during these challenging times is our key goal. The team has been pleased to see the global AWS Academy educator community come together to provide students a supportive learning experience.

“The Foundations course has been the best received elective in our graduate curriculum,” said Stephan Jones, AWS Academy accredited educator at Ball State University who is volunteering his time to serve as a mentor to students taking this course.

“Last year, I had to teach it twice as the course was capped for enrollment the first time, and at least two-thirds sat for and passed the AWS Certification exam. It’s a no-brainer to make it available to the students who did not get a chance to take it as an elective this past semester.”

In the first week, educators registered thousands of students from around the world in this new open course.

Higher education institutions that want to give their students access to the course but are not yet AWS Academy members can join the program by applying online today.