Avoiding Disaster With the Help of Online Education

Thursday, March 22, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern Time

Ray E. Schroeder is director of technology-enhanced learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield and served as chairman of a workshop, held last year in New Orleans, on using online learning in an emergency. He also helped the Sloan Consortium develop the Sloan Semester, which gave students rendered homeless by Katrina a

A transcript of the chat follows.

Dan Carnevale (Moderator):
    Welcome to today's Brown Bag chat. A big thanks to Ray E. Schroeder for answering our questions today. Let's get started.

Ray Schroeder:
    Greetings to all from the prairie!

Although this is a serious topic, it is great to get together to chat about preparing to confront the challenges of emergencies that may threaten to close the physical campus. Whether they be natural disasters, pandemics, terrorist acts, or accidents - such crises can put student's lives, progress toward degrees, and careers in jeopardy. And, they can do untold damage to an institution - as we learned in the Katrina disaster, they can even threaten the viability of a college or university due to physical damage, lost enrollments, lost faculty and staff.

The focus of our chat today will not be on the physical damage and recovery - as critical as those aspects are - but, rather on how we can assure that the curriculum can continue to be offered in spite of damage or closure of the campus. Certainly, the Katrina disaster caused many of us to think about these issues - and even motivated many to take action through such activities as the Sloan Semester - sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and administered by the Sloan Consortium and the Southern Regional Education Board. We learned much through those activities. But relatively little has been done on a national scale.

Today, let us focus on what can and should be done nationally, as well as at each college and university and through statewide and regional actions to help assure that such disasters do not devastate student lives, faculty/staff lives, and institutions.

To get us started, here are some ideas you might want us to probe:

How can we get government agencies and universities together to plan and prepare?
What can a college or university do right now to protect itself and its students, faculty and staff?
What kinds of things are we likely to forget in our planning for such disasters?
In what ways can the Internet provide a safety net?
Are there future collaborations or technologies that may serve us in the future?

I look forward to your questions and our discussions!

Question from Helen MacDermott, eLearners.com:
    When it's all said and done, how many displaced students pursued online education opportunities through initiatives such as the Sloan Semester? Is there any information about their various experiences with online education. For example, whether or not a student chose to continue with online courses instead of returning to traditional, face-to-face schooling?

Ray Schroeder:
    Helen-
Great question! A total of 4,114 seats were filled by more than 1,500 different qualified students we were enrolled in impacted colleges and universities in gulf region. A total of 153 different institutions opened seats to those students in 1,345 classes. Full details can be found online here. Unfortunately, we do not have follow-up data on how many of those students completed their degrees online. Of course the intent was that the students return to their campuses so that this effort would not negatively impact continuing enrollments at those schools.

Question from Robin Lane, Champlain College:
    Do you have any suggestions for estimating the performance capacity of the telecommunications industry in a pandemic scenario? We've talked with our local electric company about their capacity, but have been unable to get a read on telephone/Internet capabilities, which are less local. Any ideas?

Ray Schroeder:
    Robin-
This is an important topic! The Internet was originally developed by DARPA (Department of Defense) to create a communications network that could survive a nuclear attack. The web-like nature of the 'net is such that many routes are available to pass data across the US and the world. A recent scenario run by Ohio State University showed that the Internet would survive well in such situations. Of course, traffic would likely increase significantly as people would be reaching out online. I expect that we would see traffic balance more completely through the 24 hours of day (now traffic is lower in the late night hours of most regions) to accommodate the added load. We would also likely see more P2P (peer-to-peer) connections developed to speed communication among such uses as college classes.

Question from Pat Brogan, Santa Clara University:
    Have you thought of recording lectures and archiving to use in the event of a disaster?

Ray Schroeder:
    Pat-
Yes, this is a great practice - not just for disasters, but for peer-review and pedagogical considerations as well. We have an active group of podcasting faculty members on our campus who post their lecture and other materials to the UIS iTunesU site: here. Some of those are available to all - not just UIS. Of course iTunesU is not required to start up podcasting and to create a useful repository of lectures. Purdue University, for example, has a large collection of podcast class materials in their "Boilercast" archives.

Burks Oakley (associate vice president for academic affairs) and I just completed an online workshop on podcasting for the Sloan Consortium http://www.sloan-c.org . The large group of national and international faculty members who participated all agreed that podcasting (including "enhanced" video podcasts) can be helpful to students as well as faculty members.

In the case of a disaster, having a library of those podcasts available will be a goldmine for all!

Question from Dan Carnevale:
    What should government agencies be doing to help educational institutions prepare for such disasters? Is higher ed a top priority for government in these cases, or should it even be?

Ray Schroeder:
    Dan-
This is a very important question! As we saw in Katrina, the government agencies were not immediately coordinated in their response to the needs of those affected. Certainly life and health issues are a top priority for government. But, the stakes are very high for students and colleges as well. A student whose college is closed unexpectedly loses out in many ways - financially, but also in terms of degree completion, career potential, etc.

At this point, there does not seem to be a coordinated effort among state and federal agencies to support the continued delivery of the curriculum in cases of disasters. The Sloan Consortium is joining with other consortia to begin to bring together government agencies and universities to assure that we are prepared.

Higher education must not be ignored. In many ways the future of a region, such as in the case of Katrina, rests in large part on the young leaders who may emerge to bring that region back over time.

Question from Rema Suniga, Ohio Northern University:
    Are there lab safety issues that may arise with the use of web-based learning (soon after a storm)? If so, how are they managed?

Ray Schroeder:
    Rema-
Certainly, safety is the first priority. In the case of web-based learning, many institutions are seeking to put in place cooperative agreements with neighboring institutions to assure that their students might share lab space in safe conditions. In the interim, while the campus is restored, there is the opportunity to use laboratory online simulations to replace the physical labs. Much work remains to be done, but there are some encouraging collaborations among universities to share the costs of creating online simulations that can be used by all of the member institutions - saving money at the same time as creating an alternative to be used in the case of a disaster.

Question from Andrea Foster, Chronicle of Higher Education.:
    What types of online tools are the most cost-effective to use in an emergency?

Ray Schroeder:
    Andrea-
The first step is to use tools that are already used by the college or university. For example, we have an initiative we call "Blackboard for all" to assure that all classes on our campus will have a blackboard class space available for use in case of an emergency. More than 3/4 of our classes actively use the course management system to support their classes (both online and on campus) with class materials, electronic reserves, etc. By assuring that all classes have spaces in place with students loaded into those online spaces, we can use resources that are available at no additional cost.

In many respects the online resources are the least expensive. One essential practice is to assure that there is an effective backup for the campus web page. One of the things we learned in the Katrina disaster was that those campuses that did not have a backup site for their web page were without any effective communication tool to reach their students.

Question from Don Spicer, University System of Maryland:
    Hi Ray Can you say a bit about the planning for Pandemic Flu response that Sloan-C is coordinating? The Katrina Semester was great, but it was ad hoc and cobbled together with a lot of hard work. When we have more time to plan, we should be able to do better.

Ray Schroeder:
    Don-
Yes, there are preparations ongoing to host a workshop in Washington, DC, that will bring together university representatives with the array of federal agencies that will be essential to effective response to a pandemic. More should be coming out about this effort in the coming weeks.

As you suggest the threat of a pandemic is driving many colleges and government agencies to begin to prepare for continuing to deliver the curriculum when the campus is quarantined!

Question from Marsha Beal, Andrews University:
    I work in a small university (in the upper part of the tornado belt) where approximately 90% of the classes are f2f. How can I get faculty to think of the what if?

Ray Schroeder:
    Marsha-
Ahh, you are not alone! We, too, are on the edge of tornado alley. And, the threat from tornadoes, floods, and other natural disasters are very real. Meanwhile, the threat of a pandemic has caught the attention of many. Perhaps you may be able to piggy-back on pandemic concerns to raise the possibility of continuing the curriculum online. The most frightening scenario is that a disaster or disease will force the campus to close. In such a case the college may lose all tuition and fee revenue and may lose students who choose to continue their education elsewhere. This is a threat to Andrews as well as the University of Illinois at Springfield. If we lost all revenues, if we had to re-build part of the campus, and if we lost nearly all of our students - the campus would not likely survive. Without the frosh, soph, jr., and seniors returning - even if you re-build the campus, you will not have the revenues to re-start. A bleak prospect, indeed. Your colleagues would have to find jobs elsewhere.

Question from Sherry Clouser, UGA:
    What would be involved in developing those P2P (peer-to-peer) connections?

Ray Schroeder:
    Sherry-
Peer to Peer software is readily available. Of course P2P got a bad name early on in the music downloading era (some of that continues today). But, the technology itself is a good one. It links together groups of students in this case where they can quickly and efficiently share course materials - computer to computer. Some of the free software options are reviewed at this about.com site here.

Question from Dick Pratt, Clarkson University:
    Emergency management agencies often use mock disasters for training. Have any universities used this approach to planning for disasters?

Ray Schroeder:
    Dick-
Great idea! I don't think that many universities have done this on their own, though many have participated in local and statewide mock disaster exercises. There are also board exercises that can be conducted. Much like a board game, these can allow administrators and others to think through the kinds of problems that occur. They pose surprise events - server failure the case of a quarantine situation for example where you cannot bring repair persons to your server farm - that help us to focus on the range of issues that need to be confronted.

Question from Leslie Green Guilbault, Colgate University:
    If a college does not currently provide online courses for students, what kind of systems and training are needed to make this work?

Ray Schroeder:
    Leslie-
I am an incrementalist. :-) One needs to begin with the first step. There are a number of opportunites that are available. There are open source course management systems such as Moodle that can be mounted rather easily to begin putting course materials online. There are proprietary online web conferencing systems such as Elluminate that can offer a relatively easy first-step from the classroom to synchronous online learning.

Much support can be found from online organizations in online learning - there are quite a few both national and regional. Ken Hartman of Drexel University has posed a number of possible steps to what he calls "lessons not learned" in preparing for such situations.

I would be happy to continue discussing these first steps with you and with others who are beginning in the online learning area. Please feel free to email me.

Question from Anonymous, Anonymous University:
    Hi Ray, I'm really glad you're doing this chat today.

My question pertains mainly to developing momentum on campus and the will to take Avian Flu seriously. At present, we have a plan to put our courses online if we need to close because of flu; but this plan is isolated only to classes. We have done very little in the way of policy discussion, identification of triggers for closing, a telecommuting plan, and the like.

I am in charge of educational technology, and my scope is therefore fairly limited; but in my work on preparing a course continuation plan, I've been exposed to much that scares me. I would like to get the University to take this a lot more seriously, and do not know how to do this.

What kind of person (i.e. what job role) is the best to coordinate a University's efforts?

Ray Schroeder:
    Hi!
It is good to know that you are concerned. Having a "champion" for this cause is often the best approach. The University of Southern Maine, for example, began addressing these issues back in 1998. They formed committees to prepare for emergency responses. Now they have a high percentage of faculty members using Blackboard, both in on campus classes and in their growing online program, so they are much better prepared for such a disaster. In their case, the Center for Eechnology-Enhanced Learning is the best place to move the online preparedness initiative forward http://www.usm.maine.edu/ctel/. I think the best person is one who can get the attention of both the administration and the faculty leaders. This can be top-down driven, but it has a much better chance of success if the faculty members are receptive and understand the important stake they have in continuing to deliver the curriculum.

Question from Cathy Kelley, Fairleigh Dickinson University:
    Ray, in answer to your question about Avian Flu - yes, that is certainly the case at Fairleigh Dickinson. Our insurance covers many potential disasters, but does not cover closure or quarantine because of a flu pandemic. As a largely tuition-driven institution, this makes a flu related closure extremely worrisome for us. We simply must continue classes and other university business even if we must close.

Ray Schroeder:
    Cathy-
Ahh, great to see that Fairleigh Dickinson is out in front in this area as well. Your leadership in the area of technology-enhanced learning is great!

Question from Jeff Poley, American Distance Education Consortium:
    Good afternoon, Ray,

In a pandemic situation where students, faculty and staff may be isolated from one another or quarantined, do we have a good set of best practices available that will increase the probability that we can continue to manage the delivery of synchronous and asynchronous on-line learning programs?

Ray Schroeder:
    Jeff-
Certainly ADEC was a leader in responding to the needs of those institutions affected by Katrina!

There are best practices that have been developed by working groups - both from ADEC and the Sloan Consortium. We need to be sure that there are adequate back-ups available. We should consider partnering institutions that are geographically separated. We need to pre-identify locations where we can host our servers and if needed bring faculty and students together.

Jeff, you helped us bring together some resources for the conference in New Orleans late last fall. Many of those are linked on this blog http://e-aln.blogspot.com. I would invite all to take a look at the resources there, included are links to some of the preparedness plans at a number of leading colleges and universities.

Question from Dick Pratt, Clarkson University:
    We currently create a Blackboard course for every course, every semester. But Bb, P2P, web postings and the like assume faculty have a fairly high level of technological skill (not to mention passwords, etc) needed to keep courses running. What advice would you give us about getting "basic training" to everyone? After a disaster is certainly too late.

Ray Schroeder:
    Dick-
Good point. It is essential to have ongoing developmental workshops for faculty members. However, I know that faculty member attendance at these is often sparse. So, one can be best served by a grass-roots approach. One approach that has had some success is to identify a faculty member in every department (or college). Provide an incentive to that person (perhaps release time and travel support) to get fully up to speed on the technologies and associated pedagogical considerations. Then use that faculty member to spread the word. By getting down to the base of identifying just the right faculty member who has the ability to sway others, you are most likely to succeed.

Question from Cynthia Alexander, Cerritos College:
    How do we contact students to inform them that classes are continuing in an online format and maybe before that, how do we prepare students to actually take an online course?

Ray Schroeder:
    Cynthia-
This was one of the issues that made the Katrina situation most frustrating. We absolutely need to inform all students that the campus web page will be the communication center in cases of emergencies. Of course, you do not have snow closings, but for those of us who do, we make sure that students know they will get first word of such closings at the web page. At the same time, we need to work out an agreement with another institution that can take over our IP address and mount the web page at a distance. So, for example, your campus might agree to host our web page on a server if we were affected by a massive earthquake (such as the New Madrid fault promises the midwest one day). And, we could agree to host yours. We would have plans that would go into effect at the moment you contact us (via satellite cell phone).

I am an advocate of requiring that students take at least a part of the new student orientation online! Imagine all freshmen, transfers, and grad students are required to take some sort of brief online orientation before classes begin. One can use that orientation for university policies as well as library information, etc. At the same time, it can introduce all of the students to online learning.

Question from Cathy Cheal, e-Learning, Oakland University (MI):
    Our university had decided that in the event of an emergency (in Michigan it would most likely be an electrical outage, tornado, or ice storm of a few days duration), the online courses would keep to the same down schedule as the traditional classroom classes. This seemed best for the sake of keeping all staff, students, and faculty on the same page.

However in a longer emergency, like Katrina, we might need to turn to only online courses. How long did it take for the LA colleges to communicate and plan for continuing the online courses that were running when the hurricane hit? What were the problems in terms of the network outage and student communication?

Ray Schroeder:
    Cathy-
Great to know that you have plans in place. And, I am a big fan of the Michigan legislation that requires all high school students to take at least one online class!

In the case of Katrina, the Sloan Semester was able to gear up in just five weeks - bringing 135 other institutions in line to offer classes. Frank Mayadas of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation paved the way for a million dollar grant in the blink of an eye to serve more than 1,500 students. Now, Frank is leading us in finding ways to help individual institutions to plan for such disasters rather than depending upon external sources to provide all of the resources.

Dan Carnevale (Moderator):
    That's all the time we have today to chat. If we weren't able to get to your question, or if you just have more to say, feel free to jump into our Chronicle forums, where a discussion on this topic will continue.

Thanks again to Ray E. Shroeder for providing such great answers. And be sure to join us for next week's Brown Bag with Scott Leamon of Stamats who will talk about how admissions officers can best use new technology to recruit students and how to avoid common mistakes.

Ray Schroeder:
    Thank you all for contributing to the discussion! This was a great conversation. I look forward to continuing our discussions off-line. Much more information about how we can prepare can be had from the Sloan Consortium from Gail Sulllivan and Janet Moore gail.sullivan@olin.edu or janet.moore@olin.edu I can be reached at the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning at the University of Illinois at Springfield. 217-206-7531 schroeder.ray@uis.edu