Higher Ed Moves 5 years Into the Future: Pivoting from Crisis to Action

By David Keene

To find out what some of the top higher ed AV/IT administrators are doing to pivot their campuses to remote learning, there’s no better way than hearing directly from some of the best and most prepared professionals. A Zoom flash conference that took place Monday March 16 brought together some top pros to share their approaches, protocols, and toolkits. The archived video recording of “COVID 19 Impact on Higher Ed Virtual Flash Conference,” can now be viewed by clicking here.

My biggest takeaway from the conference: “The crisis has revolutionized the adoption of new tools… this crisis is moving higher ed 5 years into future,” said Josh Kaufman of Tufts University, one of the panelists.

The conference was organized and moderated by Joe Way, of the University of Southern California. Way has been a very active presence – long before this crisis – because of his participation, and leadership, in AV, IT, and Higher Ed events, forums, conferences, and more. He’s been a thought leader and pioneer in bringing the best enterprise tech solutions to the campus, and vice versa. And with this conference, he stepped up and produced a great look into higher ed and how professionals are working together and sharing resources to meet the new challenge.

The conference delved into so many crucial issues: integrating your web conferencing platform with your LMS, putting courses into Canvas shells, designing for synchronous vs. asynchronous remote attendance, how your tech tools can accommodate students with disabilities, and much more.

Other panelists at the COVID 19 Impact on Higher Ed Virtual Flash Conference, that had over 200 attendees (85% from higher ed) included:

• Raul Burriel, Oregon State University
• Gabe Moronta, Zoom Video Communications
• BC Hatchett, Vanderbilt University
• Mike Pedersen, Iowa State University
• Donovan Monday, West Virginia University
• Jim Wellings, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

The archived video recording of “COVID 19 Impact on Higher Ed Virtual Flash Conference,” can now be viewed by clicking here.