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APRIL 9, 2020 / 2 COMMENTS / BY KEVIN KELLY
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In complexity science or chaos theory terms
(remember Je Goldblum in Jurassic Park
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-mpifTiPV4] ?),
we’re currently in a phase transition–a period of time
Recent Posts
when a system moves from a state of disorder to a
state of order, or vice versa. Some people call it the
COVID-19 Recovery and
“edge of chaos,” which sounds like a sci- or horror lm
Planning Must Include
title. In organizational development circles, though, the Student Perspectives
edge of chaos is also known as a time when
The Unlikeliest Scenario:
opportunities arise to make real change. Optimistically,
Fully face-to-face programs in
when (not if) the world returns to some semblance of Fall 2020
order, our environment will be di erent. It’s very likely
Collection of Graphics
our current situation will present opportunities for
Available on Refreshed
signi cant change. 
MindWires Website

As an example of phase transitions, a recent wild re Two out of five US college

razed to the ground entire neighborhoods in and near presidents already
Santa Rosa, California. Some local o cials proposed considering online options for
Fall 2020 term (podcast)
that this horri c and unwanted situation may o er a
unique opportunity to address long standing Traversing the Edge of
challenges, such as chronic tra c problems that had Chaos: Phase 3 and 4
preparations for post COVID-
developed as the area’s population grew. It would take
19 world
extra work to plan tra c routes before rebuilding the
homes and businesses, but that work could create a Traversing the Edge of
new system that can adapt to future needs.  Chaos: Phase 1 and 2
preparations for post COVID-
I’ve been wondering if another horri c and unwanted 19 world

situation – COVID-19 – provides a similar opportunity Higher Ed Should Rise to the

to make higher education more adaptive. Given the Challenge of Offering Greater
amazing spirit of collaboration that we’ve all Student-centered Flexibility
Consulting and Market Analysis Services: Learn more at www.mindwires.com
demonstrated lately, I also hope that we can make
Two out of five US college
higher ed more equitable while we’re at it. I’ve written
presidents already
two posts to spark and contribute to this thinking considering online options for
sooner rather than later, even though we’re stressed Fall 2020 term
out and stretched thin. 
Massive Increase in LMS and
Synchronous Video Usage
Part 1, below, contains ideas we can work on today
Due to COVID-19
through summer 2020 as part of a transition from
reactive to proactive.  Revised Outlook for Higher
Ed’s Online Response to
Part 2, which I’ll post later this week, addresses COVID-19
planning for the uncertain future of fall 2020 and
Sale of Instructure to Thoma
making longer-term changes to learning and
Bravo Now Complete
working experiences.
A View From The Trenches:

Spring and summer 2020: A gradual The ‘second phase’ of the

COVID-19 transition to
transition from reactive to proactive remote learning
responses  US Higher Ed Set to Go Fully
Online in Just Four Weeks
One thing is for sure. As Phil Hill described in his post
Due to COVID-19
about COVID-related phases, we can’t jump to a ‘new
normal’ overnight. In a useful chart (shared again Covid-19 Migration to Online:
below), Phil suggested that a new normal may not Entering the second phase

emerge until 2021 or later, and that we’re going What we learnt from “going
through di erent phases during a chaotic transition. online” during university
Let’s look at what we can start doing now, during shutdowns in South Africa

Phases 1 and 2 (spring and summer 2020).

2U, Blackboard OpenLMS,
and the Continuing Wave of
EdTech Buyout Activity

Impact or Headlines: In
EdTech they’re not always
aligned

Concordia University Portland

Closure: There’s more to the
story

Instructure CEO Dan

Goldsmith Resigns and New
Approach for Bravo
Acquisition
Many faculty have only just begun teaching their
[Updated] According to
remote courses–what some have been calling “Covid- Bloomberg: Instructure fails to
converted” courses–to help students successfully nish get votes to approve Thoma
the spring term. Now we’re dealing with technological Bravo acquisition

issues (e.g., sharing a limited number of devices while

sheltering in place with your family), ethical issues (e.g.,
Zoom privacy) and personal issues (e.g., taking care of
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loved ones or not being able to do so) as they emerge.
We’re still working through how to support teachers
2U Academic Partnerships
and students who are suddenly using new
technologies and may be using new teaching or Blackboard Brightspace

learning methods as well. We’re also still working on Canvas Clayton Christensen

making on-campus student services and resources College Closures

easier to access remotely. With consistent annual
College Scorecard
increases in total enrollment in distance education
courses, students’ ability to access services without Coronavirus Covid-19

coming to campus has already been a real need for D2L Data Visualization

some time. 
distance education

It’s certain that we will be using the “Covid-converted” e-Literate EdTech equity

format for the rest of spring, and most likely for Instructure IPEDS
summer courses as well. We have no choice but to do
Kaplan Higher Education
whatever we can to convert courses to a remote
format. Moreover, very few campuses have adequate learning platform

sta ng to support all of the faculty equally. The rst Learn Ultra Listedtech

installment of WCET’s new series, What’s Next

LMS LMS Market M&A
[https://wcetfrontiers.org/2020/04/08/whats-next/] ,
mindwires Moodle OER
outlines lessons learned by the Virginia Community
College System as it prepared for the short term. For Online Education OPM

my part, I’m recommending a few practical strategies OPM Market

to start shifting our approach from reactive to
Pearson Embanet
proactive, including but not limited to the following:
PowerSchool Praesidium

Suggestions for educational developers and Private Equity

instructional designers Purdue Online

Adopt a “beginner’s mind” approach when helping Purdue University

faculty and students: It’s easy to forget what people
Purdue University Global
don’t know when they rst start teaching remotely.
I’ve seen quite a few “Keep Teaching” sites pop up in Remote Teaching Sakai

the past few weeks, and almost all do a good job of Schoology Student Debt

streamlining a lot of information so faculty new to

student panels
remote or online teaching know what to do and
Thoma Bravo Wiley Deltak
where to start. One group I work with, Peralta
Community College District, 1 [javascript:void(0)] went
the extra mile to present the information from a
teaching-centric viewpoint, rather than a tech- Categories
centric viewpoint. Instead of organizing pages by
tool (Canvas, Zoom), they organized entry-level Author Clay Shirky
pages by typical classroom teaching activities Author Evangeline
[https://peralta.instructure.com/courses/419/pages/ma Cummings
the-switch-to-remote-teaching-and-learning?
module_item_id=859086] and listed how faculty Author Jeanette
Consulting and Market Analysis Services: Learn more at www.mindwires.com
might do those things remotely. This approach Wiseman
meets newly remote faculty where they are. Many Author Kevin Kelly
will still need us to think this way even after we’ve Author Laura
made it through the spring. At the same time, we Czerniewicz
need to help faculty adopt a beginner’s mind and Author O'Neal Spicer
imagine what the remote student experience is like. Author Phil Hill
Survey faculty now to identify unnecessary Blog
barriers to learning: Faculty new to the experience Blog Readings
may have a hard time coming up with methods to
achieve what they did in their on-ground classes.
For example, some teachers have begun delivering
full-length lectures on Zoom with no activities or
breaks, just as they would in a classroom. Those
teachers may not be aware of challenges related to
learning in general–e.g., working memory, cognitive
load, selective attention–and to learning equity–e.g.,
availability during normal class time, adequate
Internet connectivity. Some instructors plan to ask
students to print their nal projects–up to 50 or 100
pages–and mail them via the US Postal Service.
Again, practices like these present equity challenges
for students without printers, without the ability to
leave shelter-in-place and/or the funds to print and
ship, etc. Here’s one strategy to make sure we
identify and address these cases. Since we often
only hear from faculty who ask for help, survey ALL
faculty to determine how they are sharing content,
facilitating interactivity, and assessing learning.
Contact those who unintentionally may be creating
barriers for students and brainstorm together ways
they might accomplish their goals. (NOTE: I’ll cover
the idea of student surveys and student feedback in
Part 2.)
Take the time to test the learning experience on
mobile devices: A number of students and even
some faculty are going through the remote teaching
and learning experience on a smartphone or other
mobile device. However, some online activities and
even some LMS experiences (e.g., Blackboard) may
not work as well on a mobile device, or behave
di erently based on using a mobile browser or
mobile app. We need to show faculty how to test
 the mobile learner experience–even if it’s just
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through a web-based mobile device emulator. 
Work with campus disability sta to support
students who need accommodations: This week
Inside Higher Ed published an article about the
impact that moving to remote learning can have on
students with disabilities
[https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/06/rem
learning-shift-leaves-students-disabilities-behind] .
Campuses and districts are scrambling to make
remote courses accessible, e.g., captioning videos
and purchasing new licenses for tools like
Blackboard’s Ally to check the accessibility of course
content. Students who face less visible learning
challenges may not be considered. For example,
clicking the quiz settings checkbox to “display one
quiz question per page” supports students who
have a hard time staying focused. 

Suggestions for administrators

Expand and formalize faculty peer mentoring: In
my blog post a couple of weeks ago
[https://philonedtech.com/a-view-from-the-
trenches-transition-remote/] , I shared ideas for
administrators such as “recruiting veteran online
instructors to mentor faculty new to remote
formats.” Now that we’re moving from one or two
faculty to the entire program being online,
department chairs and deans should create open
conversations about online teaching and learning.
Campus leaders should continue to build out,
institutionalize and formalize peer mentor networks
as a regular support structure for all teachers. 
Support faculty and student health and wellness:
In a GSV Virtual Summit this week
[https://gsv.ventures/april-8/agenda/] , the Director
of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Marc
Brackett, reported that a recent survey of 5000 U.S.
educators’ emotions showed “anxiety” is far and
away the most common emotion, followed by
“stressed” and “overwhelmed.” On a personal level,
this impacts health and relationships; on a
professional level, this impacts attention,
performance and decision-making. This begs
 questions like these: How are we supporting the
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less visible, emotional needs of higher ed faculty, in
addition to the training needs? Are we fostering a
growth mindset for the faculty who have become
learners as they adopt new technologies and
teaching practices? The California Community
College system has provided Wellness Central
[https://cvc.edu/wellness/] , a free online health and
wellness resource that is available 24/7. It’s
primarily for students, but are administrators and
support sta sharing it (or something similar) with
faculty?

Again, these are just a few examples of how we can be

more proactive this spring and summer as part of
Phases 1 and 2. Hopefully, these ideas are something
we can accomplish now, while we’re still in a time of
urgency and emergency. It’s both necessary and within
our capacity to start preparing for fall classes as well. In
the next day or two, I’ll describe how we can take
further steps toward more substantive change in
preparation for Phases 3 and 4. We still don’t know
when we’ll reach a new normal or what it will look like,
but we can begin building more thoughtful, intentional
and equitable teaching and learning environments and
experiences for the fall.

Disclosure: Kevin works as an educational consultant

with Peralta Community College District and ACUE, and
is on the AAEEBL Board of Directors; MindWires
provides services to the CCC California Virtual Campus-
Online Education Initiative.

Author
Kevin Kelly [https://philonedtech.com/author/kevin-
kelly/] -

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2
REPLIES

Roxann
April 9, 2020 at 12:51 pm

The Health and Wellness of students & faculty is a critical area that

sadly has not received enough attention, or at best discussed

disproportionately to the technological aspects of rapidly transitioning

to remote education, esp. video conferencing issues that are garnering

extraordinary high attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. High

stress for university students was already at a crisis level pre-COVID-19.

Post traumatic stress issues, will most likely arise and put additional

pressure on the already limited mental health services for students and

faculty. Thankfully, many universities/colleges have already transitioned

some of their F2F psychological services to online types of help and

support.

Mark Brackett, as you note above, the Yale University survey, is

noteworthy in revealing the already present high levels of stress and

anxiety. NY Gov Andrew Cuomo has praised HeadSpace, a mindfulness

App and website, for helping all NY residents deal with anxiety and

stress during the current pandemic. Many universities, including NYU,

UCLA, and more, in good faith, have already made available health and
wellness types of apps for students. What universities will need in

addition to the above, is to deeply think about developing a

comprehensive campus /community plan for returning students and

faculty/sta safely to the physical campus at sometime in the near

future. This plan will most likely be included one of the phases you

detailed and mentioned above, and in future posts. Thank you for
providing keen insight.

Reply
 Kevin KellyConsulting and Market Analysis Services: Learn more at www.mindwires.com
April 9, 2020 at 4:32 pm

Hi Roxann,

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I mentioned

HeadSpace in a previous post, and it could indeed be part of a

campus-wide plan to support health and wellness for faculty,

students and sta . I will make sure to mention your idea about

“safe return to campus” plans in the next post!

Best wishes, Kevin

Reply

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