Campus Closure and Academic Continuity

1. Campus Closure and Academic Continuity Sloan-C International Symposium Carefree, Arizona Thursday, May 8, 2008 Palo Verde I, 1:05 – 2:05 p.m. Live and Learn

2. Introductions Ray Schroeder Professor Emeritus of Communication Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning University of Illinois at Springfield Don Spicer ECAR Senior Fellow & Assoc Vice Chancellor for Information Technology, University System of Maryland Adelphi, MD Bruce Chaloux Director, Student Access Programs & the Electronic CampusSouthern Regional Education BoardAtlanta, GA Janet Moore Chief Learning Officer, The Sloan Consortium

3. Readiness mitigation prevention preparedness reconstruction rescue, relief recovery

4. Threat review Emergency Notification Research Athletics IT data backup Administrative Services Emergency Operations Disaster planning Disaster Recovery Aftermath Response Campus Safety and Security BusinessContinuity Preparedness IT Systems Institutional Resilience Student readiness Continuity Faculty readiness Mode of instruction Advising Academic Continuity OperationalContinuity Learning Mgmt System Scalable courses Library Special needs populations

5. effective practices for academic continuity from three perspectives Course and program Institution and infrastructure Region, nation

6. threats Weather Pandemic Terrorism Campus lock-down (?)

7. NPS-11 2300 Ci Cs-137 3000 lbs ANFO Dose Distribution

8. drivers Academic mission Reputation, ‘culture of readiness’ Survivability, sustainability Enhancing routine operations

9. Live and Learn: Campus Closure and Academic Continuity Program and Course Level Ray Schroeder University of Illinois at Springfield

10. program and course level Preparedness begins at the course and program level Without preparation and participation by the faculty member, no plan can succeed From a student perspective, the course is the building block of the degree Preparations must extend to every faculty member, course and program

11. course level (students) We take for granted that students can easily navigate LMS and Web 2.0 – not always the case At UIS this fall 48.5% of the students are taking at least one online class – 73.4% of the grads last spring had an online class Blackboard created for every class – used in approximately 85% Building familiarity among students

12. course level (students) Best practices: Develop a student orientation program in which all students are taught the technology tools which are used to deliver classes online Encourage all students to use the course management system, web conferencing for discussions, access to course syllabus, etc. Assure that students are experienced with the technology before an emergency occurs

13. course level (faculty) Faculty members need to be facile with the technology before the crisis occurs One time trainings just don’t do the job Daily use of the LMS, web conferencing, and related technologies Build the tools into the class – blend some portion of your classes Put class materials in LMS or content management system (saves on copying!)

14. course level (faculty) Best practices: Use the electronic tools regularly – they are efficient, less expensive, and green Store content on the LMS or Content Management System Try blending at least a portion of your classes so students and faculty members build electronic rapport Build relationship with faculty members at other institutions – use virtual guest lectures

15. course level (faculty) Prepare for alternative approaches to teaching – outside the LMS wikis, blogs, e-mail, telephone See what Farleigh Dickenson University is doing: http://fdu-coursecontinuity.wikispaces.com

16. program level (chair) Advising and detailed records are kept at the program level Too many departments still have a row of file cabinets with hanging files Assessment records, coursework samples, syllabi are too often in paper form Student major records, contact information and program plans are on paper Program computers are not regularly backed-up off campus

17. program level (chairs) Best practices: Keep your records electronically – more efficient, economical, and environmental Back-up all computers off campus or at least to an electronic storage facility elsewhere – ICCN is 400 Gbps 500 mile loop linking three campuses – SCSI arrays and VM servers Develop collegial relationships with analogous departments at other universities

18. an institutional perspective Donald Spicer Assoc. Vice Chancellor, Univ. System of Maryland Senior Fellow, Educause Center for Applied Research (ECAR)

19. background of my perspective I am a Chief Information Officer for a System I have had similar positions on campuses As an ECAR fellow I have participated in studies related to emergency response, disaster recovery, business continuity I recently participated in writing an ECAR Research Bulletin on new views toward these issues, focusing on UMUC as a model of an institution that understands the need for continuity of operation

20. IT organization perspectives IT organizations typically have long experience in continuity of operations Driven by many institutional processes depending on IT Auditors look closely at these processes Traditional IT disaster recovery views About data center operation Prepare for flood, fire, electrical outage, human error, etc. Preparing to react Plan, design redundancy and backup, train, test, etc.

21. institutional business continuity Historically focused on business functions ECAR study [Shelter from the Storm: IT and Business Continuity in Higher Education (Yanosky, 2007)] The message of the study: Strong incentives, limited resources Business continuity unthinkable without continuity of IT operations Institutions invest in emergency response teams, but do not make substantive investments IT is often involved in continuity planning with business units, much less so with that of academic units

22. pandemic flu may be different The scope of discussions likely to be institution wide. Recognition that the institution may be closed for a substantial time Within our System, there was preliminary discussion of continuing the academic program via ALN Only a couple of our institutions have a hope of doing this

23. why? Pros Institutionally LMSs are broadly used Have a substantial number of faculty who have course support already in a LMS Students substantially use LMSs in their courses Again, for course support Cons Typically faculty don’t have enough of the course online for offering entire course Laboratory Courses are generally not doable without substantial revision Have no plans or triggers or communication plans to switch to fully online delivery in case of closure

24. additional factors While many faculty are trained to use the tools for online learning, many aren’t Faculty support is not easily scaled up It will be hard to justify more investment in faculty development support for this purpose outside of an actual emergency

25. other issues Many institutions have no systems in place for fully online students for assessment, advising, text books, etc. that would be needed if the closure is long term. There may be policy issues that need to be resolved a priori in order to change a course to fully online from some other mode

26. more factors While we are talking about fairly abstract plans and processes, experience has shown that everything depends on people at the time---and in an emergency they will have conflicting demands We still have to deal with an attitude of “we do things the way we do them” Runs counter to developing collaboration and sharing

27. can we discuss and resolve these? Katrina was regionalized and was 2 years ago. Many say “it can’t happen here” Pandemic Flu certainly caught attention but the wind has gone out of those sails Institutions are overwhelmed by immediate issues Crisis notification being the immediate emergency concern Spellings Commission issues This all seems like buying insurance

28. conclusion Academic continuity either institutionally (with a few exceptions), regionally, or nationally is not going to happen spontaneously. While it is important that plans be developed, promoted, and implemented, someone (or organization) is going to have to take the lead

29. an emerging consideration • Green or sustainability efforts are gaining prominence • Will encourage much more working at a distance • Teleworking for faculty and staff • Hybrid and ALN classes • As these take hold, much more network based engagement by faculty and students

30. final thoughts about another approach altogether Implications of ECAR Research Bulletin Articulates a principle of “Resilience” Design sustainability of operation into everything you do and be willing to pay to implement it Quite different than the reactive approach of the past----disaster recovery Much easier to discuss in IT, though not widely adopted even there Need to start with the premise that “we are going to be out of operation for an extended period of time----how will we survive as an academic institution?”

31. Bruce Chaloux Director, Student Access Program and the Electronic Campus Southern Regional Education Board A Regional and National Perspective

32. regional/national effortsa key to survival? Local campus and system-wide efforts and actions are essential to maintaining continuity of operations but… Your relationships, partnerships and connections to regional and national organizations might get you through a crisis Why regional and national efforts are key What we learned from Katrina -- seven strategies/actions you should take

33. why regional and national efforts are key It can extend your network of assistance It can operate when you can’t It can mobilize resources and get them to you or You can move your students/operations to them It can help sustain academic continuity for students It can serve as a “bridge” for students from your institution back to your institution

34. Lessons Learned from Sloan Semester/Katrina

35. lessons learned There are a large number of good people in the higher education community. The fact that so many institutions would come forward to offer their courses for free, and that so many faculty would take on an additional class with only a small stipend, speaks volumes about the high quality of these institutions and their staff.

36. lessons learned Given the right set of circumstances, you CAN cut through academic “red tape” to get things done. Given a common goal and purpose, you CAN build an “institution” in three weeks. We need to build on the Sloan Semester effort and establish a national system that will be ready to respond to the next inevitable disaster.

37. strategy one Develop academic emergency plans as facility/IT plans are being formulated Faculty Component Administrative Component Student Component Focus on re-establishing or continuing academic activities/services

38. strategy two Develop a plan for re-establishing institutional Web sites…fast Clear evidence from Sloan Semester that academic communities turned (attempted to in any event) to their web sites Have a back-up hosting site Develop a system for approving messages

39. strategy three Develop student continuation plans—online learning should be a key component Migrating courses to online format Course continuation strategies Course sharing arrangements It is difficult to develop online courses or to undertake faculty training in a crisis

40. strategy four Develop a set of guiding policies and obtain policy commitments. Include… “Admission” to another institution Tuition and fees Financial Aid Credit transfer/recognition Course completion/extension of terms

41. strategy five Establish and have ready online repositories of courses…join now ElectronicCampus Sloan-C State and system online initiatives

42. strategy six Design an academic “buddy system” “Partner” with another institution(s) Student services/support Faculty (joint course development) IT back-up/sharing Strengthen relationships Sloan C, NUTN, ADEC, others

43. strategy seven Once you have developed a disaster recovery/continuation plan, don’t hide it!!! Make it known to the community Review and revise regularly Provide access to it in an emergency

44. resources Academic Continuity-Emergency Management Workshop Report (and resources) http://www.academiccontinuity.org Sloan Semester http://www.sloan-c.org/sloansemester/ Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/Disaster/ Changing Ideas of Campus Disaster Recovery: Designing Resiliency into Systems, Suresh Balakrishnan, Robert "Rob" Sapp, Eric Spangler, Donald Z. Spicer, EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, Volume 2007:20 20 College checklist for pandemic flu http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/collegeschecklist.html Fairleigh Dickinson University Faculty Quick Start Guide http://fdu-coursecontinuity.wikispaces.com/ Learning After Loss http://www2.universitybusiness.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=546 Shelter from the Storm: IT and Business Continuity in Higher Education (Yanosky, 2007) http://connect.educause.edu/library/abstract/ShelterfromtheStormI/39105

45. discussion