Gregory S. Smith - The New Normal in IT

—KENDRA C. KETCHUM,Vice President for Information Management and Technology, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Yes, remote or hybrid were offered. We have one partner that really doubled down on on-campus learning during COVID but that meant a portion of the students were in the classroom and some students in other rooms or in their dorms. Other schools went either hybrid or full remote, closing their campus partially or fully .

—DR. JASON NAIRN,VP of IT and Security at Collegis Education

Yes and no. Our program is what we call flexible learning so part of the student population is on site but others off site. Those on site went off site but it was more or less available .

—HOLMAR ERLU SVANSSON,Managing Director, University of Akureyri, Iceland

Higher Education Question: How many semesters did your students/faculty go to remote work?

Our campus went full remote in March of 2020 and remained that way until Fall 2021 .

—KENDRA C. KETCHUM,Vice President for Information Management and Technology, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Typically beginning sometime in the Spring of 2020 and going through Fall of 2021 in most cases. So, most schools had at least 5 terms affected – Spring 2020, Summer 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021. Fall 2021 may be affected in some locations due to the increasing infections among the non-vaccinated .

—DR. JASON NAIRN,VP of IT and Security at Collegis Education

Five semesters, starting with the spring semester of 2020 and ending in the summer of 2021 .

—GREGORY S. SMITH,Adjunct Professor, Technology Management Graduate Program

Three semesters .

—HOLMAR ERLU SVANSSON,Managing Director, University of Akureyri, Iceland

Higher Education Question: What tools did your students and faculty use most during remote work?

Primary tools such as secure VPN for faculty and staff connecting remotely. For students, tools included Blackboard and Office365 .

—KENDRA C. KETCHUM,Vice President for Information Management and Technology, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Zoom for teleconferencing

Learning management systems (Blackboard, Canvas)

Google Suite of products

Microsoft Teams

—DR. JASON NAIRN,VP of IT and Security at Collegis Education

Canvas LMS, Zoom for online meetings, Google Suite of products

—GREGORY S. SMITH,Adjunct Professor, Technology Management Graduate Program

Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Blackboard, Zoom .

—HOLMAR ERLU SVANSSON,Managing Director, University of Akureyri, Iceland

Higher Education Question: Describe the students' satisfaction level with remote learning .

Our students reported a satisfaction with the remote tools and support, including our TechCafe services that we continued to provide remotely .

—KENDRA C. KETCHUM,Vice President for Information Management and Technology, The University of Texas at San Antonio

This is highly variable. I attended 3–4 SGA meetings during the COVID crisis and a lot of the feedback was positive. Students are aware of the circumstances. Their concerns were mostly around disruptions. They need these tools and systems to work consistently in order for them to be able to meet their deadlines and course requirements. They also need training and helps that can support them when they are working remotely and need help. Schools that have a good help infrastructure had happier students during the pandemic .

—DR. JASON NAIRN,VP of IT and Security at Collegis Education

Average but not as good as in-person instruction. Students often expressed to me (via Canvas, email, course feedback) that online learning was not as effective as in-person instruction. I ended up evolving my courses to include optional (but highly encouraged) weekly live lectures for key topics and chapters in support of each course. Students overwhelmingly responded to these real time lectures in a positive way. I intentionally did not record them to encourage participating in the live sessions, where they could interact with me and their graduate student colleagues .

—GREGORY S. SMITH,Adjunct Professor, Technology Management Graduate Program

High. Students miss the social events but learning as such has been fine as our programs are not in “accidental remote learning.” It is our strategy .

—HOLMAR ERLU SVANSSON,Managing Director, University of Akureyri, Iceland

Higher Education Question: Did your university offer a discount to students (undergraduate and graduate) during the 2020 calendar as a result of Covid-19 and the shift to online learning?

We did not offer discounts, but refunds on services such as housing and meals were made. We also offered loaner laptops and Wi-Fi devices to students .

—KENDRA C. KETCHUM,Vice President for Information Management and Technology, The University of Texas at San Antonio

No, but there were direct payments for students from several COVID relief programs. These programs sent funds to schools and required that a portion (i.e. 50%) be paid directly to students. The rest was available to schools to use in support of programs and COVID-related changes, like technology enhancements .

—DR. JASON NAIRN,VP of IT and Security at Collegis Education

Yes. The university offered undergraduate students a 10 percent discount if they did not return to the university in person. In addition, students were offered a 20 percent discount for housing and dining fees as certain semesters were shortened .

—GREGORY S. SMITH,Adjunct Professor, Technology Management Graduate Program

No .

—HOLMAR ERLU SVANSSON,Managing Director, University of Akureyri, Iceland

Although the global pandemic will likely come to an end at one point as a result of herd immunity and a global vaccine push with likely annual booster shots, unemployment rates in the United States and globally will take years to recover to pre-Covid-19 levels. According to the World Economic Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund in October 2020, “the pandemic had and will continue to have especially severe effects on the most economically vulnerable,” specifically women and younger workers. 32 Recognizing that unemployment is typically measured by dividing the unemployed individuals by the total number of individuals in a particular country's labor force, it can be a misleading number. 33 The primary reason is that if a person lost a full-time job and settled for a part-time job – they are still considered employed. Thus, the published unemployment numbers include full unemployed individuals, but not underemployed , or those who accept part-time positions in the labor force. As a result, the real unemployment numbers for countries is typically higher than what is published by governments.