If you are working in higher education, it has been quite the week involving the coronavirus. And it is only Wednesday!
SO much has happened over the past few days. Universities are moving classes online. Students moving out of dorms and told to stay home after spring break. Some faculty are now realizing that they have to use the technology for real now in their classes.
We got the news today that the University of Louisville was moving all classes to be online – until April 5th. Now, this is not saying that we will be doing this for the rest of the term – but you never know. You have to be prepared for anything to happen right. That’s where having experience in crisis communication comes into play.
Am I worried? The answer is no, not really. I have 10+ years of teaching online experience (thanks to WVU!) and technology is what I work with every day, for every class. The settings may be different – but the structure of the class as far as content should not. However, I had a few of my colleagues and friends who are teaching raise the concern about teaching campaigns and how they would translate this to an online setting.
This is from someone who is teaching two campaign style classes where our class clients are both involved in the event industry – hosting to thousands of people who are live or are coming to Lousiville.
Not a big deal. I say, bring it on!
There are a few things to note here as you move towards going online.
First, keep calm and carry on! Be kind to yourself. If this is your first class or experience teaching online, make sure you note that there will be some lessons learned from this experience. Reach out to other professors you know at your school or online (I highly recommend Karen Sutherland and Lin Humphrey for this – they are amazing!) and see what best practices, tips, and resources they are able to share here. You are not alone!
Keep your students updated. Faculty are not the only ones trying to figure out what is going on – but students as well. They may have a lot of questions on how this will turn out, what they will have to do, and what are some things that will change as a result. The best thing you can do is take a leadership role in the situation. Be aware of the fact while you may have several classes to manage online, they do as well. Be aware that this may be stressful for them as they navigate this new space. Be consistent, respectful, and understanding in your messages and updates. It may be good to have multiple channels of communication here for your students along with your LMS program. Email, social media, etc are all good here. It’s reassuring to let students know – 1) you are accessible, 2) you are here for them and 3) you understand this is a new venture for you all. Taking this collaborative approach and viewpoint on the situation can help.
Let your clients know what is going on. Since I am dealing with clients for my social media classes, I sent an email out to both Tony of the Louisville Bats and Dodie of the Kentucky Derby Festival. I did not want to keep my class clients in the dark, and wanted to make sure to let them know what was going on. I discussed what UofL is doing, what I am doing for the class, and what we will be doing as a class to make sure we are still hitting to the same standards and expectations for the class project.
Transparency and a clear communication channel here is essential. Invite the clients to be part of the remote meet ups with your class, or in the case of the clients themselves, have the students meet with them in person in small groups.
Set a structure for your routine. Things should not change just because you are no longer teaching in person. Do the same things you do for your classes online as you do in person. Have the same routine for meetings with your students.
Remember, going online does not mean it is easier. In fact, it is sometimes harder since you have to do a bit more in clarifying any questions, create new content that is consumable.
Be aware of what technology you have, and what you will need. All schools have a learning management system like Canvas or Blackboard – and all of them have some sort of video conferencing tool that allows students, professors and others to meet virtually.
Think about what you will want to do with the time you meet with students. Lecture? Group meetings? Guest speakers? Virtual office hours? I am trying to stay as consistent as possible with my classes online as I had planned to do so with my offline classes. Tools like Zoom, Collaborate, Panapto, and others are very good to use for your classes. Just use the one that works for you.
Be reassured, there are lots of resources out there. Thank goodness for the Internet! There are many resources, tutorials, fact sheets, and professionals out there to help you.Props to Justin from Indiana University for creating this great Zoom to Adobe Premiere Rush tutorial here (thank you Justin!) and the #SMprofs group has been active in making sure to share resources and updates for the community as well. This has been great to see here since this is somewhat of an uncharted area for many of us.
Building your home studio. Since I moved to my house, this has been one of the goals of mine to create a studio where I could record, create, and produce content more professionally. I was thinking of doing this later this year, next year perhaps…..
Well, in light of what is happening with the coronavirus – this timetable moved up a lot quicker for me. I went ahead and got a professional microphone, ring light, and a few other items (thank goodness for Amazon Prime!). If you are looking at what to get perhaps for your at home studio, check out what Brian Fanzo has recommended.
You want to make sure you are creating content that is professional, but also accessible for all of your students. This takes certain tools and resources, and in the day of age where we are seeing more virtual summits, conferences, webinars, etc emerge – it’s not a bad investment to have here.
Consider exploring this as a potential teaching research opportunity. We have never experienced this kind of thing ever. This has huge ramifications for what we do as professors in the future, so why don’t we study this? What are some of the ways other professors are working together on addressing this in their classes? How do you proactively handle class clients remotely and effectively in a time of crisis? These are just some of the ideas I had in mind to use as a possible case study. If you are a professor experiencing this, let me know if you want to be a part of this project!
Overall, I think we can say we are in a fluid situation that is changing quite rapidly. We have to be understanding and kind to each other – lots of stress, fear, and uncertainty is around us pretty much every where we turn. What we can do is control what we are able to control, and lead by example. Know that we are all in the same boat, but we are here together to help each other out.
Hope you all are doing well and have a great day!
Best Wishes,
