Colleges and universities transitioned hundreds of thousands of students to online platforms as a result of the pandemic. Now institutions are planning how to help students prepare for their futures in a fast-paced, technology-rich, accelerated environment.
In a recent Fierce Education online event, Higher Education Business and Leadership: Summer Edition, in a session titled, “Hold on Tight: Technology Acceleration in Higher Education,” practitioners shared their pandemic stories. The session’s focus was on the challenges they faced, the lessons learned, and their thoughts about expanding tech support for students after investments in infrastructure, connectivity and bandwidth have been made.
Jill Buban formerly the Vice President of Digital Strategy and Online Education at Fairfield University and now Vice President and General Manager of EdAssist Solutions, challenged the idea that fast acceleration and thoughtful consideration are mutually exclusive. “We wanted to stay true to the college’s universal values and mission,” she said. “This helped us quickly build out our infrastructure to support students during COVID through practical partnerships.”
Fairfield transitioned four thousand undergrads online and then built out 22 graduate studies programs. “We decided the way to get things done quickly was through strategic partnerships,” said Dr. Buban. The university also streamlined the digital tools available to support instruction and learning. For example, they shifted everyone to one learning management system instead of the three that had been available.
Dr. Buban and her team drafted help for building out the tech infrastructure, marketing their website, and student recruitment. Responsibility for instruction and learning remained with the university faculty, and they chose strategic partners to expand their workforce education partnerships. With a more robust infrastructure, administrators were able to bring in teletherapy services to support student and faculty mental health wellness during a time of great stress.
The Importance of Acceleration
As faculty and staff scrambled to meet the challenges of the pandemic, roles became blurry and campus leadership at California State University Stanislaus could not cope with all the demands. Director of Academic Technology Jase Teoh decided they needed to use the crisis to pivot into accelerating their technology adoption by using every tool at their disposal.
They also had to streamline the three learning management systems they were using to one, and they chose Canvas. Dr. Teoh also applied for a mini-innovation grant from the chancellors’ office and was able to hire 18 faculty ambassadors to champion Canvas. By spring 2021, the faculty was moving all active course content into Canvas. Then, during the summer, they offered training on Canvas through virtual institutes. “We conducted pre- and post-surveys to judge training and implementation, said Dr. Teoh. “The faculty thought institute was helpful as it revealed that faculty wanted more video and wanted to learn more about using Canvas for content creation.” The tech team also used multiple other digital tools and programs to successfully move all courses online for the 10,000 students.
After many long weeks of effort, Dr. Teoh felt campus leaders had learned a lot from the emergency deployment of technology resources. “I learned the importance of acceleration,” she said. One lesson learned was the importance of succession planning – as they had none before. “We realized there was no knowledge continuity as people left the university,” she said. “We now know the importance of continuity, process, and documentation and have put together a succession plan that will help in any emergency situation.”
“Teaching and working remotely are here to stay,” said Dr. Teoh. The flip side of the aggressive acceleration were the successes. “We pivoted, adapted, adjusted, and transitioned very quickly, but we also proved how resilient we are.” The positive side of this acceleration experience is that campus leaders are now ready for an emergency.
“There are things beyond our control, such as political, economic, social, environmental, and legal pressures, and we need to be prepared to respond,” said Dr. Teoh. “This is an opportunity to rethink the education enterprise and how it can best serve our students moving forward. Education needs to be adaptable and flexible while providing choices, options, and value for our students.”
Coursera’s Approach to Tech Innovation in Higher Ed
Coursera Chief Product Officer Shravan Goli, the session sponsor, focused on two questions facing universities today:
- How can institutions use technology to help students compete in the workforce?
- How can technology help instructors teach more efficiently in a hybrid environment?
“Employers are beginning to focus more on skills and less on degrees,” said Mr. Goli. 62 percent are considering skills-first as a priority and 90 percent would like to hire candidates who have validated their knowledge using certifications, digital badges, or coursework instead of a degree.
Coursera’s response is to help students develop the right skills for in-demand jobs by tying specific skills to job roles, such as the burgeoning demand for data scientists. Also, students expect online and hybrid courses to continue. In fact, 73 percent want to take fully online courses in the future, and 56 percent want to maintain a mix of online and in-person learning post-COVID.
The bottom line is that technology acceleration using existing and emergency technology is here to stay in higher education. Much of what was developed due to COVID restrictions, will be mainstream for colleges and universities.
For more articles from the Business & Leadership event, see:
Institutions Changing Priorities, Preparing for More Digital Careers
Universities Recognize the Benefits of Strategic Partnerships