Higher ed’s preparations for remote instruction

Higher ed’s preparations for remote instruction

Posted on March 11th, 2020 by Scott Warnock

Concerns about COVID-19 are widespread. I am not an epidemiologist, so I will not make any predictions, but different sectors/segments of our culture will be tested, if not by the thing itself than certainly by the “infodemic” surrounding it.

Higher education will come under close examination. I have been involved with a variety of preparation initiatives, ranging from local efforts at Drexel to much farther-reaching efforts, such as my work with writing colleagues at NYU Shanghai, whose campus was closed last month. I have also been involved through my role as President of the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators. Just this week, we offered a suite of resources for teaching colleagues to help them with the specific challenges of migrating writing and literacy courses online.

These local, national, and international conversations give me reason to believe that institutions are reacting swiftly, innovatively, and smartly to maintain their core mission of educating their students.

Colleges and universities in many places have been proactive in addressing how they will engage in teaching and what I call “studenting” in the face of closures. They are also quickly pivoting–and these are entities not renowned for nimbleness–to direct resources and person-power for the good of their students.

Much of it involves online learning. Interestingly, institutions aren’t trying newfangled, fingers-crossed approaches, but instead are drawing on the well-tested strengths of online learning. Online education has long offered opportunities for students at a distance, and, as I have known from my nearly 20 years teaching in this way, it may even offer advantages for some types of learning environments, especially in online writing courses.

Some faculty and students will find such instruction less than ideal. But given the circumstances, educational technology tools coupled with person-to-person community expertise–I have been struck by how many teachers with expertise have stepped up to help those who are seeking it–will provide campuses with ways perhaps unprecedented to shift their teaching in the face of a crisis.

These efforts will help teachers maintain for students rewarding educational environments, environments in which they feel part of the class, connected to their classmates, and linked with their teachers as well as their professors.

We can do this not by shuttling things online pell mell, but by using our expertise as teachers combined with the growing knowledge we have about online education to create some stability–and educational continuity.

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Scott Warnock

Scott Warnock is a writer and teacher who lives in South Jersey. He is a professor of English at Drexel University, where he is also the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Arts and Sciences. Father of three and husband of one, Scott is president of a local high school education foundation and spent many years coaching youth sports.