Page 22 - Campus Technology, October/November 2020

LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
was a very, very busy week,” recalled Moline. “We provided a lot of support material, a key teaching plan, a keep-learning plan, those sorts of things.”
But because of the emphasis on designing IT for resiliency, the university was starting from an obvious place of strength. People were already getting used to holding meetings from far-flung locations via RingCentral. When on-campus classes ceased, all they had to do was expand their use of the technology; instructors were trained up when classes needed to go online.
Through the morphing of IT to a cloud-first perspective, while certain applications have been replaced, others have survived and thrived. That included Jenzabar for the student informa- tion system and the student portal. In both cases, USAHS chose cloud-hosted versions. Now, while Moline’s team manages what goes into the SIS and making sure the university net- work is linked to the application, Jenzabar is responsible for administering the platform itself. Anything else that needs to cross those lines is handled on a project basis.
On the learning side, the adoption of Black- board Learn in 2019 forced faculty to redefine their courses. As a result, said Moline, “We redid almost every single course, trying to improve the quality.” That paid off in 2020, he noted. “We saw a lot of benefit there.”
Not much in back office operations was lost when the campuses closed. Incoming applicants couldn’t do their interviews in person anymore; and campus visits gave way to virtual campus tours, which people could book online. But other than that, said Moline, “it was really just business as usual.”
Lining Up for Clinical Practice
But the big question was how to achieve those practical activities that make up a big part of every student’s education at USAHS. Each pro- gram went through “a healthy exercise,” said
Moline, “in identifying the components of learn- ing that were required to be in-person, to ensure accreditation and make sure that our students are learning all the things that these accreditors expect them to learn.”
USAHS quickly shuffled the order of courses to put the emphasis on the lecture portions, which could be completed from home. The thinking was, when campuses could be reopened, students would be ready to come in and get their clinical practice.
Until that day arrived, faculty were allowed to schedule visits to campus and book time with AV and IT staffers to video-stream demonstra- tions of specialized equipment. “There was at least instruction if not physical application of that, with the idea that the physical application would come later,” Moline explained.
And then the school sorted out how those in-person courses would transpire. To ensure physical distancing, the number of sessions for lab classes was increased while also limit- ing attendance to 10 students at a time. Half- hour blocks were inserted between courses for cleaning of spaces and equipment. Stu- dents enter from one door and exit through another. Sessions run from 7:30 in the morn- ing until about 6 at night; and Saturday and Sunday classes or assessments are part of the schedule.
On campus, face coverings are required, and during lab sessions, procedural masks, gloves and face shields are provided. Touchless tem- peratures are screened as people enter from a main campus entrance point; anybody who reg- ister 100.4 degrees and above goes into a pri- vate meeting with a member of the campus reentry team to discuss next steps. Anybody not already cleared to come to campus can’t do so; those who are cleared get a daily wristband. Nobody unauthorized can move furniture or equipment.
Another area that had to evolve was the need
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | Oct/Nov 2020