2020-21: The academic year of uncertainty
B2B Blurb: As the first full academic year during COVID-19 approaches, colleges and universities are preparing for the possibility of a hybrid or all-online semester. For faculty who have only ever taught face-to-face, this requires support and ongoing training.
As the start of the 2020-21 academic year approaches, colleges and universities are unveiling tentative plans for what teaching and learning will look like in the fall. Even as announcements are made, institutions know they need to be nimble enough to shift strategies should the need arise, and these plans include hybrid or all-online models.
For brick-and mortar institutions, this means continuation of a drastic shift in the way instruction has been delivered and received in the past. For faculty who are novices at online instruction or who are disheartened at the thought of nixing face-to-face courses again, this can be overwhelming.
As an institution of higher education serving 97 percent of our student population online pre-COVID-19, University of Phoenix already had the infrastructure to support a shift to 100 percent online learning. But for our on-the-ground faculty and staff working at our local campuses, we joined our brick-and-mortar colleagues in making the shift to online. This was accomplished through open communication and targeted professional development opportunities to support ongoing improvement and skill development.
As another term approaches, we are happy to share tips from our experience.
Be as transparent as possible
When decision makers keep employees from the top down apprised of facts, it offers a level of comfort and stability, even when things are uncertain. Administrators don’t have to have everything all figured out in order to brief faculty and staff. Focusing on explaining what is happening, why it is happening and how it is impacting them will help faculty recognize that administrators value transparency and aren’t hiding behind a curtain making secret decisions. Letting people know what is happening up front lets them know you are working on a blueprint.
In mid-March, our leadership followed the what-why-how messaging when initially communicating with our physical campus instructors as states began announcing social distancing restrictions:
- The what: We closed physical campuses on a specific date and time, moving all classes online synchronously via the University’s learning management system;
- The why: We followed guidance from appropriate entities and chose this for the health and safety of our faculty, students, their families and their communities;
- The how: To continue providing an education to our students, we supported faculty with internal guides, including an overview and resources geared toward an entry-level online instructor, step-by step instructions on basic tasks, such as recording attendance, and basic functions of our real-time engagement platform built into the learning management system.
The facts at the time were clear, and the plan to move forward was stated. After an initial message, remember that communication and resources should be ongoing, offered in bite-size chunks starting with the basics, then introducing layers of information as they are determined.
Meet faculty where they are
When faculty are used to teaching face-to-face, a sudden shift to virtual learning can seem daunting. It may even be that they’ve chosen to teach in-person in order to avoid an online environment. Even with the prior semester under their belt at this point, they still need to know that they are supported.
Make use of instructional and support videos, infographics, how-to readings, FAQs, best practices and testimonials. Keep the resources on an easy-to-access faculty page, refreshed and up-to-date, and provide lines of communication to answer questions or direct faculty to other resources.
Live webinars are a great, interactive way to share information and encourage questions. In the spring, we held weekly webinars tailored specifically to our local campus faculty-turned online instructors, knowing that the types of information they may need was different than our seasoned online instructors.
We dedicated a session to technical questions, like how to connect to the LMS, preferred browsers, bandwidth, sharing a presentation, sharing a video and allowing students to present. We also had a session slated for tips on incorporating the various integrated tools — like polling, whiteboard and breakout groups — into a synchronous course session to encourage student-to-student, and student-to-faculty engagement.
Maintain the support
Ongoing levels of support should increase in complexity as faculty become more comfortable with the technical aspects of the system and facilitating their sessions. Introduce and emphasize additional resources with a pedagogical slant. In addition to weekly webinars, continue to provide resources as you did at the beginning, so faculty know who their points of contact are and where to find information either internally or externally. Encourage campus leaders to share their knowledge and participate in these processes. We have a best practices and testimonial readings section on a Resource Center page that is sourced and curated by faculty.
This is an excellent time for educators to learn from one another. The key is to offer communication about the impact COVID-19 continues to have on our institutions and offering the resources and support for our educators in order to benefit our students. As we say at University of Phoenix, together we rise.