What is Normal?
BC HATCHETT
One year…356 days… a full trip around the sun. I don’t think that one year ago around this time we thought that we would still be in the middle of a pandemic and trying to forecast what the next few months will look like. After a recent team meeting, we were asked to think back one year ago about what we were doing, how we were going through life and after reflection, the difference is striking. Many industries have gone through seismic changes in the past year, but for higher education, it has been a generational shift. Prior to COVID, my institution was focused on residential education and had not really embraced online delivery. We had a few programs that were designed for distance, but they were focused on a few fields and were purpose-built. But then COVID appeared and you know the rest because you are also living it. But what happens next?
Everything is going back to normal, right?
To that, I would ask what is normal? In addition to major shifts in the way instruction is delivered, COVID exposed societal issues that our students deal with on a daily basis. How many students lacked high-speed internet access? Reliable devices? Sufficient childcare? When things get back to “normal” these issues will still be around, but will the incentive to improve these issues persist?
I have seen guidelines that faculty will not require cameras to be on for their classes so that students do not have to expose their living conditions. How many of our faculty ever thought they would need to account for living conditions when they were
planning out their lessons? Faculty have adopted new ways of teaching and have incorporated these strategies into their pedagogy. It is not going to be as simple as flipping a switch to go back to the old ways of learning when there are so many new tools and strategies to use. There is some belief that late 2021/early 2022 will look like 2019, but I think that those days are gone.
Hyflex, hybrid, virtual, (insert catchy name here) will go away.
This one is up in the air, but the genie is out of the bottle now. Now that students and faculty know that learning can be delivered online, I think that this modality will continue to exist if not expand. Recently we had a fairly major snow/ice event here in Tennessee, and one thing you should know about the South, in general, is that we don’t handle snow or ice well at all. Usually, this would mean that schools are closed, and kids are out sledding and building snow forts.But thanks to the expansion of distance delivery capabilities, most kids found themselves still in school albeit at home. It was no different for my institution. Classes went on as scheduled instead of being canceled. This tells me that schools are no longer looking at this modality as a lifeboat but as another tool in the tool kit. If you look at the number of dollars and time that has been spent in putting equipment into place and providing training for faculty that also tells me that this modality is here to stay in some capacity even after we are back to “normal”. One aspect that will count heavily going forward is how will students want to learn. They are ultimately the customers in this scenario, and if they want to adopt more classes with a hybrid format, they will make that fact known through course surveys, feedback sessions, and ultimately where they choose to spend their dollars.
Well, what next?
We are in a unique moment in time where we are positioned to impact the future of how education is delivered. I’m not referring to shiny new equipment in classrooms, but to harnessing the knowledge of experiences and lessons learned over the past year to provide better guidance to our institutions. After reading numerous blog posts, Twitter threads, and Slack channel messages it is apparent that our industry is moving at a speed that is uncommon in higher education and we are being asked to move outside of our normal operations. Based on my experiences and conversations over the past year, I firmly believe that hybrid is here to stay in some form for the foreseeable future
Get to Know BC Hatchett
BC Hatchett, M.A.Ed. is the Associate Director for Classroom Technology with Vanderbilt University Information Technology. He holds a master’s degree in education and has worked in higher education technology management for 15 years. BC is also one of the co-founders of the Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance (HEMTA) which is working to provide a greater voice for the higher education technology industry. He is extremely passionate about serving his institution and providing the best possible experience to Vanderbilt’s faculty, staff, and students. Outside of work, BC enjoys spending time with family, friends, watching the Nashville Predators, and quoting The Big Lebowski as often as possible. Feel free to connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.