Tips for Planning for Flexible Learning in 2020

As we head into fall 2020 (spring 2020 for folks in the southern hemisphere), most schools have chosen at least an initial strategy for handling the enormous hurdles presented by the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. But 2020 has taught us nothing if it has not taught us that plans need to be flexible.

It’s already clear that the situation will continue to change, rapidly, and probably for a long time to come. What will the 2020-2021 school year look like? Remote? In-person? Hybrid? Let’s take a look at what different schools around the world are planning, at what some of the options are. Along the way, we’ll talk about some strategies for schools, not just for learning but for everything that keeps a school alive—student life, admissions, alumni relations, and more. Last semester was about short-term survival. Now we’re in it for the long haul.

How to Make Flexible Classrooms Work

Few campuses will choose to start fully online and then somehow transition back to in-person during the semester. (Although many are hoping to do so in the following semester.) But for those that choose any kind of in-person activities, they will need the ability to shut down not only the entire campus on a day’s notice, but individual classes. If one pod of students becomes potentially infected, it may still be possible to keep other pods running in parallel, if only they can be separated. It may also be possible to spin live classes back up after quarantine periods. Schools with live classes will need to adjust to the idea of constantly switching between in-person and online classes for each individual group as flare-ups and scares pop up all over campus throughout the semester.

Flexibility also needs to apply to students’ needs as well as the communities’ needs. Students will have very different risk tolerances, and forcing them to disclose reasons they might be particularly vulnerable (including pre-existing conditions, caring for vulnerable family members, and more) is not only cruel but may have legal ramifications. In addition, you absolutely want students to feel that they can self-isolate at a moment’s notice without being penalized. Draconian attendance policies just increase the chance that students will either come to class sick (and risk everyone’s health) or drop out (and risk your bottom line).

That said, flexibility should not apply to safety. Masks in shared spaces should be mandatory. For people unable to wear a mask, distance learning should always be an option.

How to Make De-Densification Work

For on campus activities, the key will be reducing the number of people who can come into contact with each other. There are a lot of ways to do this, and a combination will probably be necessary.

Large Lectures

Large in-person lectures are obviously out. The most dangerous mode of instruction is fortunately the easiest to move online. But even here, there are a number of different ways to approach this.

• Lectures can be pre-recorded and offered on demand.
• Lectures can be broadcast live from the instructor’s home office.
• Lectures can be broadcast live from an empty lecture hall.
• Lectures can be held with a small number of students physically present and well-spaced, and recorded via lecture capture for on-demand access for the rest.
• Lectures can be held with a small number of students physically present, while being captured via lecture capture and broadcast live to the rest of the class online.
• Lectures can be held across multiple classrooms and once. For example, a class may be divided into three segments, each in a different room on campus. The instructor is physically present in one while simulcasting to the other two rooms. Which group gets to be physically present with the instructor rotates. A TA can be present in the other rooms to help run the class.

Classes and Seminars

Smaller classes are more difficult. Even in-person classes will need some kind of online component, to allow for self-isolating and in the event the entire class needs to be quarantined. Traditional lecture capture is unlikely to work here; a virtual classroom will be necessary.

Labs and Experiential Classes

Labs and experiential classes are the most difficult to replace.

• Some schools are opting to skip any kind of experiential learning for the next semester, reordering schedules to make this semester purely focused on the theoretical and pushing all practicals to next semester or even next year. It’s a gamble, of course, as no one knows when “normal” will resume. And it’s highly disruptive. But it may allow schools to bypass the issue entirely.
• Another option is to have the instructor perform all practicals as demonstrations. This can be done live (so students can ask questions) or recorded for on-demand. Students will obviously miss the hands-on element. (Unfortunate but possibly acceptable for first level chemistry labs; rather more of a problem for late stage proficiency, from surgery to welding.)
• For classes where the practicals are less about physical skills and more about the decision making, interactive videos offer an in-between option – students can watch a demo up until a decision point. They can then choose from several options in a decision tree, and see the results of their decisions. These don’t have to be high production affairs—there’s no reason it can’t be homemade, whether that’s deliberately messing up an experiment and showing the results, verbally explaining to the camera why that decision was wrong, or even just throwing up a hand-drawn skull and crossbones. The point is to give students a chance to try making decisions, not to create a Hollywood blockbuster.

Tips for Making Remote Learning Work Better

As discussed above, every class will need a remote learning aspect at this point. It’s better to accept that from the beginning and plan for it than to cross fingers that it won’t happen. In the rush to remote learning the first time around, a lot of lessons were learned, and it’s wise to take advantage of them.

Planning

• Have a plan. Assume every class, no matter what, will need to meet remotely at least once, with less than 24 hours’ notice. What will you do?
• Not every student will be able to make it to every class, especially since many are no longer able to be on campus. Make as much available on-demand as you can. Your video analytics can help you figure out who is actually watching.

Access and Accessibility

• Remember that many students may struggle with access to technology or internet off of campus. While it is beyond the resources of most institutions to fix what is clearly a societal problem, anything you can do to help, will help. Are loaner or rental laptops a possibility? Sign ups to use computer labs in small enough groups to be safe? Do any of your parking lots fall into a wi-fi zone—can people park their cars there to access the wifi? What about unused sports facilities—do they have wi-fi, and can you set up well-spaced folding tables and chairs and let people sign up to use them in a responsible manner? The more creative you can be, the more students will be able to participate.
• Do not forget accessibility. Whether that’s sign language interpreters, captions, audio descriptions, transcripts, accessible players and pages, or more, do your best to keep all your students in mind. If you can’t afford to do this for every class, make extra sure that procedures for requesting accommodations on a case-by-case basis are transparent, simple, and easy to find.

Support

• Help your instructors support each other. Houston Community College, for example, created a Faculty Video Lounge last semester to help most experienced online instructors to help get their peers up to speed. They also staffed, with volunteers, a Faculty 911 program for 1-on-1 support in transitioning. (Watch a webinar in which they explain their process )

This year will be different from any we’ve seen before (including last semester). Let’s make it a good one anyway.