Virtual summer camp for faculty and staff: Maximizing our stay-at-home summer

Summer 2020 - the perfect year for summer camp! It may sound ridiculous, but that’s exactly how nearly three hundred faculty and staff across the 10-campus University of Hawai‘i system and beyond spent a week of their stay-at-home summer. In this session, we will share how the global pandemic yielded an opportunity for hundreds of educational professionals to come together…apart…for a week of online summer fun! Hosted by Kapi‘olani Community College in Honolulu Hawai‘i, the virtual summer camp came complete with session formats including fireside chats, group excursions, open swims, and camp counselor sessions. Engaging conversations and participatory webinars focused on everything from teaching and learning online and supporting peer mentors and tutors, to fostering healthy workplace relationships and personal health and wellness. This week-long professional development event was free of charge and hosted entirely via Zoom meetings with a total attendance of 1,431. Specifically, 43 sessions were created and delivered by 4 featured keynote speakers and 35 presenters, along with the participation of 18 facilitators who helped host and monitor the synchronous sessions. In this session, we will share our relevant data, strategies, and lessons learned from marketing, communications, scheduling, facilitation, logistical coordination, and developing a robust sense of place and community in a fully online context.