For 50 years, Bisk has been a leader in distance education. At this critical time, we want to help colleges and universities adapt to the new reality brought on by COVID-19.
Your institution can move online quickly (without leaving any faculty or learner behind) during the transition from in-classroom instruction to the online learning environment. Bisk’s 10 steps will help you transition existing courses online, expand remote learning programs, optimize your learning management system (LMS) and other platforms, and prepare your faculty and learners for the adventure ahead.
What Are the Bisk 10 steps?
1. Decide your mode for online/remote learning
Bisk can help guide your decision. Are you trying to transition to 100% online and asynchronous learning? Hybrid or blended? Remote but synchronous? Or 50/50, which means half of your learners are seated in the classroom while the remaining half join remotely?
2. Prioritize which existing programs and courses should move online first
Not every program or course needs to go online immediately. Bisk’s priority list is as follows:
- Start with your core curriculum, or general education program, since everyone must take these courses.
- Then include prerequisites that must be completed before progressing through a program.
- Next, identify courses with high enrollment. Bisk calls these high-touch courses that can impact many learners.
- After that, focus on courses that are on the schedule more frequently (e.g., every term or semester).
- Finally, one-off courses scheduled once a year should be your last priority.
3. Determine your strategy to transition courses from in-classroom to online delivery
Bisk can consult with you on a strategy for online deployment. Here are three common approaches:
- Go For Broke: If your school has capacity in money, time, and resources, then transition all courses to online delivery – all at once. It’s painful, but it can be done. Identify champions to promote your cause positively. Partner with Bisk to lighten the load on your faculty.
- Staggered: Move courses online in batches. Every four weeks, launch another batch. Your entire portfolio of courses can be online in 18 months.
- Cohort: Use the staggered method but begin with freshmen-only courses. Move courses online as the cohort matriculates each semester or term.
4. Identify other processes that will be impacted by online/remote learning
In the rush to transition online, some on-campus processes may be neglected. If learners are remote, how will these processes operate? Bisk advises you to have a plan for five key in-person areas that are often overlooked when moving online:
- Registration and drop/add for classes
- Paying tuition
- Signing financial aid documents
- Academic advising
- Purchasing books at the campus bookstore
These areas do not have to suffer if you can get ahead of them, and Bisk has solutions for these new challenges!
5. Select an LMS and other technology tools
Selecting the LMS that best fits your school’s culture and needs (and your existing technology) is one of the most important decisions you will make when moving online, but it’s not the only important decision. Give some thought to the other tools that will make online and remote learning go smoothly, such as an online meeting tool, a video conferencing platform and associated equipment (if taking the 50/50 approach in Step One). For your faculty, purchase webcams, microphones and headsets.
6. Document your progress
Moving online means a substantive change to your school’s academic programming. Any significant transition (greater than 25%) from in-classroom to online or remote learning will require your school to notify an accrediting body of this change. Bisk recommends you prepare your documentation on substantive changes while simultaneously making progress during your transition. Document the following:
- Your rationale for moving online
- How to remain compliant to the accrediting body with this substantive change
- Your procedures for assessing student learning outcomes and achievement
7. Train your faculty
Faculty training is essential when moving to online and remote learning. Bisk knows that faculty must F.L.E.X. their online muscles to be successful! A robust professional development plan will help faculty:
- Face their fears about teaching online
- Leverage their unique teaching style in the online environment
- Engage online learners from their remote locations
- EXecute online delivery with the same confidence as when in the classroom
8. Trust your students
Bisk recognizes that a satisfying learner experience is your ultimate goal, and you may feel the rush to move online can jeopardize the people that matter most – the students. To that, we say: Trust your students! Many elements of their lives are already online: communication, work, gaming, and perhaps even prior education. Students are your untapped resource! Recruit their help as a work-study task force. Listen to students’ concerns, as they may expose gaps that need to be addressed. Invite them to your committees. Have student voices engaged in every online initiative.
9. Get creative. Expand online and remote learning opportunities.
Now that you are on a roll, it’s time to get creative! Leverage the strengths of your school, faculty and students to expand online and remote learning opportunities. Bisk can help you carve your niche, differentiate your school from competitors and expand your reach into new markets, specialized industries and unchartered territory – because you had the courage to go online.
10. Find a partner
You do not have to do this alone. Bisk offers proven comprehensive, scalable solutions that combine technology and training to meet short- and long-term needs in this challenging environment. Together – through consultation, collaboration and creative design – Bisk can partner with you to:
- Plan all stages of online deployment, from prioritizing programming to strategizing course redevelopment
- Migrate traditional in-classroom courses to the online environment (in whichever LMS you choose)
- Expand your remote learning programs
- Optimize your LMS to support such programs
- Train your faculty and staff to operate effectively in a remote learning environment
COVID-19 might be a disruption, but it’s not a dead end for your school: It’s a new beginning! Contact us at bisk.com to take the first steps toward a best-in-class online learning experience for your students
BIO TAG
Author: Jennifer King, PhD
Dr. Jennifer King is a formerly tenured professor, academic dean,and author with more than 25 years of experience in higher education. Her doctorate in Instructional Technology and Educational Measurement & Assessment has made her a thought leader in online and remote instruction and learning. She is currently the Academic Program Director for Bisk Education, and has helped more than 40 colleges and universities reimagine their online instruction, strategic program planning and pathways toward accreditation. Contact her at jennifer-king@bisk.com.