Wine Colleges Cope With the Time of Learning Dangerously

The Covid 19 pandemic has changed almost every aspect of people’s lives, and in every corner of the world, so much so that it can be hard to even recall life before the lockdowns.

Among the worst affected are students, many of whom dealt with canceled programs, or whose courses were relegated to hastily set up online programs.

Now students in the various wine programs are heading back to class … or to a computer screen … and we were wondering how colleges and universities are planning to cope. We checked in with a number of institutions and teachers to see how they plan to provide education safely in this time of learning dangerously.

At Okanagan College, home to the region’s Viticulture and Wine Studies, classes are back in session for certificates in Wine Sales, Winery Assistants, and Viticulture, but the school is taking a wide range of precautions.

The Covid 19 “Reoccupancy Guide” is designed to allow for education while maintaining social distancing. For example, all doors are converted to either entrances or exits, so you never run into people going the other way. Elevators and washrooms can only have one occupant at a time, and even most stairways are one way, so your education will definitely face some unexpected detours.

At North Island College, the administration sent us a summary saying, “Communicating with prospective students is being mostly being done by email, phone and also by Zoom, Skype or other virtual conferencing. Very little on campus visits.”

Covid has been great for sign makers, apparently, as OK College and many other institutions are liberally plastered with safety signage and especially with signs of the floor indicating where you can stand two meters apart.

While OK College is opening, others are providing only online classes, some classes have been put on hold, and others are being held but with a drastically reduced number of students.

“During the last stage, we paused our classes,” said one administrator. “When we moved into this stage, we resumed them with physical distancing and other safety measures, and our class participants are happy with that.”

And while online education may not be perfect, most agreed that it’s appropriate for many courses, with one saying, “Students seem to be adjusting to the new methods of learning remotely.”

Brock University in Ontario is another of Canada’s premiere programs for wine, cider and spirits education, particularly at the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) and it’s more recent offshoot, the Cider Institute of North America (CINA).

This year, according to Manager of Continuing Education Barb Tatarnic, some of these courses will be held online.

“The Cider Institute of North America’s flagship Foundation course is offered several times each year in partnership with our training providers,” Tatarnic announced. “In response to the continued COVID-19 situation, CINA instructors have collaborated to develop a first-of-its-kind online Foundation course to boost your cider production career or hobby.”

The online course will be offered in two programs and will include live, virtual sessions every Tuesday during the length of each course.

One benefit of this approach, she notes, is that the school can now offer input from experts in other regions.

“World-renowned cider makers will lead live discussion about the application of production knowledge to a career in the cider industry,” she said. This year the course will include expert lecturers from Brock, Cornell University, Washington State University, and Virginia Tech.

And, to provide that hands-on experience so crucial to learning, Tatarnic added, “Cider samples and fermentation kits will be sent to all participants for sensory analysis and product development throughout the course.”