Responding to Academic Dishonesty: Why and How to Use a Developmental Approach

Honorlock online proctoring platform LMS integration

Consider taking this approach to protecting academic integrity to prevent academic cheating while empowering students.

Considerations on a Punitive versus a Developmental Approach

To say that coronavirus was a major disruption to colleges and universities across the country could not be more of an understatement. Since Spring semester 2020, colleges and universities have been tasked with completely turning their worlds upside down in order to keep students engaged and learning while simultaneously keeping them safe. 

More than 1,300 colleges and universities in all 50 states canceled in-person classes and/or switched to online instruction as the pandemic accelerated.1 At least 14 million students have been affected.2

Delivering and consuming instruction was not the only challenge. The pandemic also altered nearly every aspect of college life. Students and faculty made it through canceling events, closing dorms and the demise of all the things that make college life enriching including peer groups, student/faculty dynamics and athletics just to name a few.

As students left campus and online learning increased, institutions also needed to ensure academic integrity for this enormous initiative. Testing paradigms had to shift – and shift quickly.  Honorlock alone provided over 6 million online proctored exams in support of higher ed during this time.

Making it through the pandemic

It has been over a year since the pandemic hit. The good news is the undergraduate grades have held steady and even improved at a number of universities that offered most courses remotely.3 That’s something to be proud of, considering all the fear of the unknown and plain hard work it took for faculty and students alike.

But all is well. Beth McMurtrie in “Good Grades, Stressed Students” goes on to say:

 “…Averages can hide a lot. Some campuses saw a rise in the number of students on probation or dropping out after a semester, even if average GPAs did not decline. Some campuses reported a significant amount of cheating, which may skew grades and suggest deeper struggles for students.”

Many students struggled to adjust to remote learning

The data also suggests newer students unfamiliar with college life, students on a lower socio-economic scale and students in community colleges fared worse than others. A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse found summer enrollment fell the most at community colleges and among black students.4

In the “Good Grades, Stressed Out Students” article, we meet Jackie Bell, a sophomore at San Francisco State University. All but one of her courses are virtual, so she has spent hours in her bedroom each day without talking to anyone. Other than a 9 a.m. live class three times a week, she watches taped lectures, takes notes, and works on her assignments until 6 pm.  

Jackie also had difficulty figuring out her path through college. She met virtually with someone in advising, but later found out they had given her the wrong information. She also tried to make an appointment with a counselor, but they were either too busy or when she did connect, they suffered from technical issues.

 “I already don’t know anything about the system,” she said. “Online I have to dig even more. There’s nobody telling me, maybe you should check this out.”

In that same article, Allison Calhoun-Brown, senior vice president for student success and chief enrollment officer at Georgia State University added:

“First-year students just didn’t know how to do college. They didn’t have a sense of where they could get support, how all this works, how to organize yourself well enough to know the deadlines.”

She continued:

 “A lot of the best research said that these classes should be taught asynchronously, but we found that students performed much better if the class was synchronous. There was probably a stronger connection to classmates and students.”

One professor at UC-Santa Barbara had students tell him they were expected to help out at home more now than before, cutting into study time. Parents were impacted – if they could keep work at all – with all the childcare challenges that COVID brought, for example. So siblings were expected to pitch in.

COVID created a perfect storm of change and stress, coupled with the need for students to “make the grade” in uncharted territory.

The need for online exam integrity is growing to include non academic settings

As investments in the digital delivery of online learning content increased significantly over the last several months, so too has the focus on administering high-stakes online exams to allow test takers to take such exams from their homes without risking exposure to COVID-19.5

And as important as COVID was in shining the spotlight on academic integrity – for online proctoring, it is quickly becoming even larger than academia alone.

Testing organizations have introduced home-based online versions of exams, such as the Graduate Records Examination (GRE), the Advanced Placement (AP) exams, and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam.

Corporations learned lessons from COVID as well. The remote work phenomenon opened up a new frontier in how and where work gets done, and it has spilled over into how certification paths for workers are delivered and administered.

Certification paths for skills development are on the upswing in corporate America, and it really began to take off as COVID struck. Just as in academia, online proctoring improvements enabled organizations to move from more expensive in person formats and enabled corporations to continue offering certification tracks virtually.

And we will have learned the lessons of COVID (hopefully) in order to apply them to the next pandemic in what has become a global village.

Online proctoring software will continue to improve

So, while we may all wish to debate the privacy concerns with remote proctoring, the reality is, it’s here to stay. At the very least identities need to be verified and abject cheating will need to be flagged, whether you are in an academic setting or a corporate one.

Will online proctoring continue to evolve over time? Most assuredly so. Will it happen fast enough to assuage students who feel they have had this thrust upon them in a very demanding time. Probably not.

What can we do to help students adjust and still protect academic integrity?

So what can we do to help our students adjust to this new testing paradigm? First, we need to consider looking at “cheating” through a bit of a different lens. There are really two different approaches here.

First, rather than look at proctored online testing as a way to “catch” cheaters, consider it a tool for visibility into how and why the academic cheating may be happening.

Secondly, we need to figure out what we should “do” with cheaters and their need to cheat. That’s the harder one.

For these questions, we turn to the work of Tricia Bertram Gallant, who Honorlock had the pleasure of working with at a recent Academic Integrity Online virtual seminar in conjunction with The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Dr. Bertram Gallant is an internationally known expert on integrity and ethics in education. She is a long-time leader with the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI). She is also the Director of Academic Integrity at UC San Diego.

In a recent UC San Diego newsletter article, entitled “Does Remote Instruction Make Cheating Easier”6 Dr Bertram Gallant breaks down remote instruction versus online learning in answering the following question:

Is it remote instruction that can increase the chances of students cheating, or more likely the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Unfortunately, we know much less about remote instruction than we do for online learning, which is very different from remote instruction. Online learning is planned, and often exams are still proctored (with either online services or required in-person proctoring).

Remote instruction is the mode of instruction in which students are temporarily separated from the instructor and course content is delivered digitally, as in the case of an emergency campus closure.

We don’t know if students are cheating specifically because of remote instruction. But we do know from the research conducted over the last 10 decades by behavioral economists such as Dan Ariely and psychologists such as Eric Anderman, among others, that human beings are more likely to cheat when:

        • They see or believe that other people are doing it.
        • There are temptations/opportunities (that is, cheating is situational).
        • There is a heightened state of arousal, stress or pressure.
        • The class rewards performance rather than mastery of the material.
        • The class reinforces extrinsic (i.e., grades), not intrinsic (i.e. learning), goals.
        • Instruction is (perceived to be) poor.
        • When it’s less likely that there will be costs to cheating.
        • They can disassociate their self-identity from their actions.

So, if remote instruction or the pandemic result in any of the above factors, then it is logical to conclude that there would be increased chances of academic cheating.

Consider a developmental approach rather than punishment when cheating occurs

Dr. Bertram Gallant’s work in getting to the bottom of why students cheat and then using the information to help students not cheat is of great interest.

Rather than a simplistic punitive approach “don’t cheat,” Dr. Bertram Gallant’s work revolves around developmental approach examples that use the student’s reasons for cheating and couple them with targeted mentoring based on those reasons to move the student toward a higher integrity stance. She sees this as fundamental to the responsibilities of each institution to the student.

In a recent Journal of College and Character article entitled Punishment is Not Enough, The Moral Imperative to Responding to Cheating With A Developmental Approach7, she writes:

The rates of academic cheating should not surprise us. Deception is used by all species as a strategy for survival and success, and so the act of cheating by students may be seen as a “natural and normal” (Stephens, 2019, p. 9) response to school systems and cultures that value “achievement, credentials, and getting ahead” more than learning (Galloway, 2012, p. 391). 

Consider the hypothetical student who is at risk of failing a class, the consequence of which would be losing their financial aid and thus their ability to pay their rent. In such a case, deception, rather than honesty, may be the intuitive, default response of the student, with honesty requiring more deliberative thought and reflection (Bereby-Meyer & Shalvi, 2015).  

This intuition toward deception is bolstered by what Ariely (2012) calls the “fudge factor,” our ability to maintain a healthy sense of ourselves as honest people even as we cheat. This “fudge factor” is on full display in the Josephson Institute survey—while half of the students admitted to cheating, 93% of them expressed satisfaction with their own morality.

This is not to say that colleges and universities should accept cheating as morally acceptable or inevitable (Stephens, 2019). Academic cheating is certainly not morally acceptable. When students cheat, even on the most minor of assessments, they are being dishonest (i.e., misrepresenting that they know, have done, and/or can do) and perpetuating unfairness (i.e., gaining a competitive advantage over those who have been honest).

As such, cheating represents an existential threat to academia because it not only undermines student learning (both academic and moral) but also the validity of its assessment and, ultimately, the integrity of the credentials conferred upon them.

She then outlines very clearly the differences between a punitive bias and a development frame.

Responding to Academic Misconduct: Presuppositions of Two Contrasting Approaches

You can see from the table that punishment is included in both approaches, lest you think there are no repercussions to cheating, but in the punitive there is little opportunity for change or learning.

At the end of this article she and her colleague, Jason Stephens, devised a call to action for institutions:

In this article, we examined why educational institutions fail to respond developmentally to cheating, choosing instead a punitive approach. We also examined the benefits and limits of both punishment and development.

In the end, we argue that when educational institutions adopt a punitive approach, they are declaring that students who cheat are simply incorrigible and incapable of learning and growth, or we are incapable of helping them learn from cheating, and so all that remains to do is punish.

We believe that we can do more than this. We believe that we must do more than this. This article, is a call-to-action, a challenge issued to all colleges and universities, but particularly those who are already dedicating resources to other activities that facilitate character or moral development (like service learning or ethics classes), to make the commitment to move away from the punitive toward more developmental approach examples for responding to cheating.

To do this, institutions can start small, perhaps by training a small group of people to have structured reflection conversations with students to help the students do their own assessment and begin their own education.

For those institutions interested and able to do more, perhaps consider a restorative justice process instead of the current judicial process or using existing resources on campus (like the writing or learning center) to create educational opportunities that students could take after an instance of cheating.

To go further, institutions can form a taskforce to analyze their current punitive approach, discuss and design a developmental approach, and then invest some resources into building up the structures necessary to support students in the aftermath of cheating.

These same structures and resources can also engage in preventative education and culture-building, so the institution is supporting integrity in all facets, but the goal of moving from punitive to developmental should be primary.

If we refuse to help our students learn from their failures—ethical or otherwise—we are failing our students and falling short of achieving our educational missions.

Online proctoring with a human touch to protect academic integrity

Honorlock’s mission is much more than catching cheating and delivers a better way to protect academic integrity with online proctoring that’s good for the institution and for students.

Our exam proctoring services aim to protect academic integrity and empower students. We take the online proctoring experience and make it human by combining the benefits of live human proctoring backed by smart AI proctoring software.

Honorlock’s philosophies as a company follow the developmental approach rather than the punitive, which is why we are sharing this paper. We value integrity, humanity, humility and courage – for ourselves and in our relationships with others. 

Our remote proctors are trained specifically on how to de-escalate the stress that goes with online proctoring so students can have a more human interaction with proctoring. Customers are able to adjust the online proctoring to more closely match their needs.

Our approach to the fine tuning of the AI that drives the online proctoring experience includes feedback loops so the product is constantly improving. Honorlock’s customers will attest to our focus on continually building online proctoring solutions and relationships that provide insight into a better solution for institutions and students alike.   

The pandemic isn’t over yet

COVID is a hard lesson that’s still being learned. We aren’t going “back to normal” as we knew it. But with communication, perseverance and the strength of our communities and colleagues, we are making our way through it.

Please consider adding a look at what your institution’s practices and philosophies are in terms of cheating.  If we are building a better model, perhaps it is time to include a change of direction in how integrity is approached, communicated and strengthened. Continue to be aware that different constituencies experienced the pandemic in different ways.

Here are some helpful Do’s and Don’ts we compiled that remind us of that humanity in learning.8

Don’t

  • Do not forget that we are still in a pandemic. Do not forget that it is also an inequitable pandemic.
  • Do not cause further harm. Do not support, enable, or endorse policies that perpetuate further inequities or fuel negative perceptions of students.
  • Do not ask students for their approval of a decision that has already been made. Instead, engage with them in advance to help determine a solution.
  • Do not require more proof of learning in an online class than you would normally require in a face-to-face setting.
  • Do not forget that this is not the educational experience students wanted or expected. Nor is it a test of online education. And in case you were wondering, it still will not be “online education” in the fall. It will continue to be a derivative of emergency remote teaching and learning.

Do

  • Use learning outcomes as a guide and means to design and focus educational offerings.
  • Listen to students’ voices and respond accordingly.
  • Modify assignments and assessments in ways that are flexible, use low bandwidth, and are based on the principles of equitable assessment.
  • Be aware of and address systemic inequities.
  • Engage in trauma-informed and healing-centered pedagogy and assessment

To learn more about how Honorlock can help your institution protect academic integrity and support students, sign up for a demo today!

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 Smalley, A., Higher Education Response to Coronavirus (COVID-19), National Conference of State Legislatures, Mar 22, 2021, https://www.ncsl.org/research/education/higher-education-responses-to-coronavirus-covid-19.aspx
2 Johnson Hess, A. How coronavirus dramatically changed college for over 14 million students, CNBC, Mar 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/how-coronavirus-changed-college-for-over-14-million-students.html
3McMurtrie, B., Good Grades, Stressed Students, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mar. 17, 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/how-coronavirus-changed-college-for-over-14-million-students.html
4Sedmak, T., Community Colleges, For-Profit and Rural Institutions, Black Undergraduates, and Male Undergraduates Suffered Most from Online-Only 2020 Summer Sessions, According to Latest Enrollment Data, National Student Clearinghouse, Sep 2020, https://www.studentclearinghouse.org/blog/community-colleges-for-profit-and-rural-institutions-black-undergraduates-and-male-undergraduates-suffered-most-from-online-only-2020-summer-sessions-according-to-latest-enrollment-data/
5Luna-Bazaldua, D., Liberman, J., Levin, V. “Moving high-stakes exams online: Five points to consider”, Education for Global Development, July 2020.
6Piercy, J., This Week at UC San Diego, Does Remote Instruction Make Cheating Easier, July 2020, https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/does-remote-instruction-make-cheating-easier
7Tricia Bertram Gallant & Jason M. Stephens (2020) Punishment Is Not Enough: The Moral Imperative of Responding to Cheating With a Developmental Approach, Journal of College and Character, 21:2, 57-66, https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2020.1741395.
8 Supiano, B., Teaching: Assessment in a Continuing Pandemic, https://www.chronicle.com/newsletter/teaching/2020-08-20 3/6

Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

How Higher Education Leaders Can Reduce Staff Stress

Lee Skallerup Bessette wrote an excellent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “The Staff are Not OK!” where she reminds us that it is past time to pay attention to the health and well-being of the staff members whose work has pulled our campuses through the Covid-19 crisis. In our scramble to move courses online, our staff members have had to work tirelessly to keep our institutions afloat, in an uncertain environment fraught with fear, often at the expense of their own mental and physical health. 

Mark McCormack at Educause then used that article as a starting point to develop an Educause Quick Poll on Stress in the Workplace, which yielded some eye-opening results.

McCormack checked in with more than 1,500 higher ed IT and tech professionals to see what their stress levels might reveal and explore opportunities to improve well-being going forward.

The poll methodology was as follows:

“The poll was conducted on January 12, 2021, consisted of 10 questions and resulted in 1,522 complete responses. Poll invitations were sent to participants in EDUCAUSE community groups focused on IT leadership. Our sample represents a balanced range of institution types and FTE sizes, and most respondents (96%) represented US institutions.”Ibid

Findings include:

Staff members are stressed out. A strong majority of respondents (76%) reported that their level of workplace stress has increased since the beginning of the pandemic. The figure is even higher for those focused on supporting remote teaching and learning, no surprises there.

They expect more of the same, if not worse.  Yikes.  Few respondents expect relief from stress in the near future.  54% of respondents said they expect their stress to stay about the same as it is now. 36% expect their level of stress to increase over the next 12 months.

They are doing more work with fewer resources and less certainty. 43% cited “additional responsibilities or increased workload” and 38% felt “insufficient staffing in key areas of my work” (38%) were the main drivers contributing to their stress.

“Uncertainty about the future of my institution and/or career” (30%) makes up the last of the top three stress factors. This particular source of stress appears to be more prevalent from the smallest institutions—36%, compared with only 27% among those at the largest institutions.

The top three symptoms noted on all this stress are:

  • Difficulty concentrating while working on tasks 60%
  • Not being able to maintain workplace habits that nurture well being 54%
  • Less energy/more tired at work 42%

To be fair, there was evidence that institutions are trying to step up.  52% of respondents reported that their institution has provided more flexible work hours or schedules, and just under half (45%) reported receiving messages of empathy and understanding from their leadership.

Another interesting finding was most felt supervisory guidance and team-building are lacking.

“Only a quarter of respondents reported receiving guidance or support from their supervisor for managing their health and well-being, while roughly a fifth reported receiving additional PTO from their institution. Very few (9%) reported having more frequent or regular team-building activities or opportunities.”

However, the bad news was that approximately 6% of respondents told us that they have received none of the above supports from their institution.” Ibid

As in any survey, the qualitative information is as informative as the quantitative numbers.

  • Workloads and expectations of staff have not been adjusted

“Now that things have settled a bit…and most courses are operating fine remotely, the workload hasn’t decreased. Other things have taken that place, and we’re still overworked. I guess overworked is our ‘new normal.’”

  • Many staff are feeling overlooked 

“Better recognition (staffing, pay, or simple recognition of work performed), especially for good work done by understaffed offices.”

  • More transparent and frequent communication from leadership is critical  

“Communication has gotten worse during the pandemic, leading to confusion, animosity, and frustration. Clear communication is key.”

How Can Higher Ed Leaders Help Reduce Staff Stress?

There are some stress reduction methods the poll participants were using on their own to help their stress and sense of isolation. Supporting and promoting these stress reduction activities can go a long way with your staff.

These personal strategies include:

  • Increasing physical and mental activities such as going for walks, or meditation that momentarily disconnect them from work and help them feel refreshed.

“An increased focus on meditation, prayer, and acceptance. A daily gratitude practice has been critical as well.”

  • Finding ways to connect with others to mitigate social isolation.

“After-work virtual cocktail socials with others in my field. Participating in more virtual conferences.”

  • Daily work practices and boundaries help.

“Having a routine and a regular place designated for work has helped me avoid stress during this time.”

They also had these ideas for supervisors and institutional leadership.

  • Provide flexibility both in terms of working arrangements and schedules. Flexibility was mentioned as a long-term policy, even after the pandemic has lifted.

“[Because I am] a single mother, flexibility is probably more important than even salary. I have a long commute, and the ability to work from home has greatly DECREASED my stress. I have an extra 3 hours in my day. This is huge. I’m more productive at home and have more time with my teenage kids.”

  • Establish healthy policies and boundaries. “No meeting” times and limiting evening and weekend email activity were suggested.

“I schedule meetings for 45 minutes rather than an hour and take the 15 minutes to walk away from my home computer. I also schedule walks outside twice each day for 20 minutes each.”

  • Listen.

“Display more empathy and understanding from the top. There is not much that can be done to make things measurably better, but knowing the leadership understands is helpful.”

“Ask. Listen. Ask. Listen. Repeat.”

We can all do more as a society to recognize the effort that has been put forth for the betterment of our academic institutions and the students we serve.  Honorlock sees the effort first hand, working with our clients across the country.  We salute everyone who has been laboring to keep our education efforts running smoothly (even if it didn’t always feel that way to our educators).  If Honorlock’s online exam proctoring can make your testing approach easier, please reach out to us.  We know the work you do is so important and consider it our mission to contribute however we can.

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1 Lee Skallerup Bessette, “The Staff Are Not OK,” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 30, 2020.
2 Mark McCormack, Educause Quick Poll Results:  Stress in the workplace, Educause Review, January 15, 2021.

Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Surviving Remote Teaching

We recently hosted a live webinar entitled, “Surviving Remote Teaching:  Top 5 Things You Need to Know,” with Gabriela Alvarez, the Director of Learning Design and Innovation at Florida International University.  The information was so helpful, we wanted to share it with our blog readers. We hope you find these remote teaching tips informative and helpful as you prepare for the Fall semester.

The Top 5 Things presented by Gaby are rooted in the Community of Inquiry Model pictured below.

All these various inputs drive learners’ educational experience.  Distance learning is no different.  Teaching is teaching, no matter the medium, but how you present your distance sessions are guided by the following interactions:  

  • Instructor to Student – or how well you interact virtually with your learners 
  • Student to Student – how your students interact virtually with each other
  • Student to Content – how your students interact with the content you provide for them.

We can impact how well our students perform by using these interactions to guide our design of distance learning as well as our own behavior while doing so.

So, here are the 5 Remote Teaching Tips:

Tip 1: Your design really, really matters.

Everyone realizes that we are moving from “Emergency Remote Teaching” to a more thoughtful online mechanism of learning, now that the crisis seems to be passing a bit.  Here are a few things to think about as you contemplate your online sessions’ design.

  • Consider what elements of your teaching benefit most from real-time interaction.  That means really turn a critical eye toward what you need to teach in an interactive fashion.  It may seem onerous, especially in the early stages, to think you have to “be on” every moment of every session, but the truth is, you don’t necessarily have to be.  Think about engaging ways for the students to explore the content without you providing didactic instruction.  
  • Flip where you can. The flipped classroom has been very successful in schools and businesses.  Learners consume pre-recorded content (even by you!) and then come to their synchronous sessions to deep dive into the application.
  • Plan your synchronous interactions.  
  • Simplify where you can.  So much of what we have in the classroom is because we are face to face.  How much of that do you really need to get your instruction across?  Students (as well as teachers, especially now) are trying to balance access, content and structure in and out of our academic lives – so give yourself a break and figure out the best, easiest way.

TIP 2: Your Attendance Is Mandatory

And by that, we mean you.  Not them.  You must be present and engaged to win.  As in Tip 1, people are stressed and you need to try to be intentional with providing opportunities for the student to interact with you.  Here are a few ideas:

  • Let your students get to know you and each other. Spend time intentionally getting to know them and letting them know you.  You’d be surprised at the calming influence this can be for them.
  • Send frequent announcements.  Communication is always key in stressful situations.  Don’t assume they know.  Make sure you tell them.
  • Give substantive feedback.  Teaching is feedback, no matter the medium!  Make sure you develop a way to provide the feedback they need.  They may need more or less right now.  Just ask and follow through.
  • Hold virtual office hours.  Make sure they can contact you.  It also helps to put a lid on the “noise” you may receive in a digital world.  Remember, time and place is interrupted in the digital space.  Where they may hold their questions till “next class” in the brick and mortar world, in the digital space, they can ask things on the fly.  And probably will expect an answer in that way as well.  So making sure they understand when you will be available will save everyone some angst.

TIP 3: Establish boundaries and Set Expectations on at least two parameters:

PERFORMANCE

  • How often, when and how?  Make sure they clearly know what to do.
  • Proctoring requirements, especially if you are new to proctoring
  • Other online-specific course policies that you may have

INTERACTIONS

  • How do you expect students to interact in your course?
  • How can they expect you will interact throughout the course?  Make sure they understand how you expect the class to communicate.

Check out the webinar below to see an example of FIU’s template.  Yours may be different, but it’s a good exercise to go through to understand what expectations are.

Tip 4: Usability matters…a lot!

Spend time looking at your course as if you were a student.  If you have to, enlist others who aren’t as close to the instruction as you might be.  They can sometimes see things you don’t.  If they are having trouble, your students will be having trouble.  For example, these are some things to watch for:

  • Is the course navigation logical and consistent?  If people are lost in the navigation, they don’t consume the content, plain and simple.
  • Is the text-based content legible?  Are you using an old copy of a copy that you scanned in?  Go find the original and make sure people can see what you need them to see.
  • Test your course site navigation (as a student).
  • Orient your student to the layout of your course.  Spend a bit of time (it can even be a pre-recorded module!) that walks them through how to get around in your course.
  • Provide instructions on how and where to solicit technical support.  And lastly, you aren’t the Luddite whisper.  In a very nice manner, post where they go for password resets, etc.

TIP 5: Mind your policies.

Especially if you teach at multiple institutions, make sure you understand what the privacy and accessibility standards might be.

Family Educational Protection Act (FERPA)

Guidelines to consider are personally identifiable information privacy:

  • Know how directory information is defined at your institution.
  • Use the technology provided by your institution.
  • Do not post student grades publicly.
  • Can I record my synchronous sessions?
  • Consider your proctoring procedures.

Consider the abilities of ALL your students in a digital space:

  • Videos should be captioned.
  • Audio files should have transcripts.
  • Use color carefully.
  • Provide accessible documents formats.
  • Provide alternative text for images.

Well, those are the Five Remote Teaching Tips. If you would like more information or remote teaching resources, please view the recorded webinar here.  Be kind to yourself!

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

9 Best Practices to Ensure Online Testing Integrity

How to protect online testing integrity

How to protect online testing integrity

  1.  Low Stakes Assessments – Nothing is worse for a learner than to realize their midterm or final will be taken with new proctoring software.  “Who are these people?  Does my school not trust me? What if the software glitches and I can’t finish my test?”  Rest assured, none of that will happen with Honorlock, but your test takers might not know that. Use low stakes assessments – provide a practice test or think of fun quizzes so that students can get comfortable with the proctoring software in a stress-free environment.
  2. Test Banks – Use test banks that to randomize questions for students students. And make sure that is known so they won’t be tempted in the first place!
  3. Concepts and Understanding – How questions are worded can make a big impact on how to gauge understanding. For example, try to craft questions that students answer conceptually rather than a simple definition. Using concepts helps students learn more and actually tests their knowledge.
  4. Limit Information Access – It goes without saying that limiting access to information during test-taking is the reason for proctoring services.  You need your students to be able to show they master content without looking up information. But, you also need to make sure you don’t lock them out of necessary information they don’t need to commit to memory in order to solve a problem or demonstrate their mastery of a particular subject.  Things like figures and tables they need to solve a problem should be provided in the question or websites whitelisted in the proctoring system. This helps students not spend precious brainpower remembering models when you really want to see if they can solve a problem in context.
  1. Knowledge Application – An important aspect of teaching and learning is how well your students can apply the knowledge you taught them. Keeping reference material at bay during a test shows you they have mastered the material and can apply it. This is important to employers as well. Employers will one day take that student as an employee.
  2. Trust, but Verify – Using online proctoring on all tests lets students know that it’s an expectation of your course. It’s also important to have a conversation with students about why academic integrity is so important – to the school, but also to the students who will have earned their degree in your institution. 
  3. Syllabus Information – Your syllabus can work wonders in explaining expectations, test rules and why cheating is never an answer.
  4. Find Methods to Observe Behavior – Anyone that has developed online learning will tell you what one intends sometimes is not what is practiced. This means that students can sometimes misunderstand specifics that you might have felt were obvious. For that reason, it’s important to pencil in a full quality check that includes reviewing the usage logs (who is having trouble), watch the proctoring videos, or maybe even a search of student discussions.  All these help you see how your testing is being consumed so you can tailor it if need be.
  5. Request feedback – Let students know you want to know and encourage them to provide feedback to you. 

Tip:  Listen to the feedback objectively and then do something constructive with it.  It could be something as simple as someone needs further explanation, but you won’t know if you don’t ask!

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Improve Online Learning during COVID

Online learning has been a wild ride for higher ed.  “Just make it so, number one” is how it felt to those doing the instruction. Students needed to finish courses and preserve their credits, COVID or no COVID. 

Educators and institutions have been very clear that they need more help in understanding how to effectively design, develop, and deliver high-quality instruction online. 

This is true for all instructors and institutions but is greatest for those teaching at institutions that serve those who will likely be affected most because they lack access to needed resources and technology.  

What has dropped this week is a faculty-focused online playbook from Every Learner Everywhere that provides those expert resources and guidance to assist us all as we struggle to master the next phase and improve online learning.

The Online Playbook to Improve Online Learning in Response to COVID-19

The online playbook, Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19, was developed by the Online Learning Consortium, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and Every Learner Everywhere, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here’s a summary of the 55 page playbook about designing with equity in mind, course design, content management, and more.  

To begin with, the online playbook provides a path for continuous improvement of instruction along a quality-oriented continuum and provides guidance along with three milestones:

  1. Initial Design
    Guides immediate and basic needs for moving a course online.  In the past few months, this has been “your hair on fire” modality. And that was totally ok.  Going forward, you will use less “fire” and more thoughtful design. It is useful for the translation of face-to-face or blended courses for fully-online delivery.
  2. Enhancement
    It provides options to strengthen the student learning experience.  This milestone presents itself when you have the time to recognize what worked and what didn’t, and how to improve online learning experiences for your students. It is useful for improving face-to-face course elements that do not translate easily to online modalities.
  3. Optimization
    Optimize offers ideas and resources for online teaching that aligns with high-quality, evidence-based instructional practices. It is useful for the continuous improvement of the online learning experience and student outcomes.  This maps to a more settled milestone where you can incorporate more support for the longevity of any course.

These are all good principles to use whether you are in a crisis or just generally for good learning design.

So, In a Nutshell:

When you are thinking of how to design your course or courses, the use of an evidence-based model (they link to Backward Design) helps you begin with the end in mind.  If you begin with where you want them to end up, it is much easier to see the forest for the trees in laying out your course.

The following is excerpted from the playbook:

Key course design principles include:

Beyond effective design and presentation of content and materials, there are several things you can do to set yourself and your students up for success:

  • Become familiar with the LMS that your institution uses (and your remote proctoring solution if you have one ).  
  • Select supplementary tools based on your course outcomes and goals.  Here is a great list of some from which to choose.
  • Introducing yourself and your course is important for establishing your class environment, setting expectations, and for allowing students and instructors to get to know one another. In an emergent situation, providing a course welcome in the online course can help ease the disruption and set the stage for instructional continuity.
  • Design your course to provide intentional opportunities for students to interact with the instructor, each other, and the course content.
  • Set clear and explicit expectations for your course for both performance and interaction. This is especially important in the online environment, where there are fewer verbal or behavioral cues than in face-to-face courses.
  • Provide options and opportunities for students to communicate with the instructor. This is especially important in online courses, where real-time interaction is limited or unavailable.
  • Provide academic support resources (including institutional resources such as library and tutoring services as well as supplemental resources) and ensure that students are aware of them.
  • After an online course is completed and has been offered, it is important to regularly evaluate and rove the course to ensure that it is up-to-date, relevant, and following current best practices for high-quality online education.

Download the Faculty Playbook here.

Click below to get information about quickly implementing online proctoring if your institution is moving to online learning related to COVID.

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Fall (not winter) is Coming…But It Kinda Feels The Same

There is a very interesting article in EdSurge this week that covered a new guide to opening schools in the fall put out by New America, a Washington, D.C. based think tank.  While this guide is not a mandate by any means, it does cover four possible scenarios that could be likely. Each of the scenarios, while written for primary and secondary schools, has application for higher ed if you wish to apply it.  

While much ink and airwave energy is being spent on how to open businesses at the moment, that level of pre-occupation on how colleges and universities are planning for the fall and beyond is just not there. That does NOT mean energy is not being expended at a furious rate to figure it out!  But simply that it isn’t getting the press that the business equation commands.

New America’s guide was developed by Kristina Ishmael, senior project manager of the Teaching and Tech team at New America; Rebecca Heiser, a lead instructional designer at Penn State’s World Campus; and Jennifer Payne, an edtech coordinator for an online school in Colorado.  This team used the “present understanding of COVID-19” and health experts’ best advice for school re-openings of all stripes.

Out of the four scenarios, returning to “what was” is conspicuously absent.  

There is a reason for this.  The CDC recently released their guidance for schools that advises refraining from reopening until schools are able to screen students and staff for COVID-19 symptoms and to be able to protect students and staff should a positive result be found.  You can find the CDC guidance for universities and colleges here.

The article states, “All four scenarios laid out in the New America guide are predicated on the idea that distance learning will, in some way, be folded into every school’s plans for the coming year.”

Here is a synopsis of each of the four models.  They range the gamut from traditional in-person classes with a twist to full online models if safety does not present itself.  The article has more detail, but these are the four high-level approaches.

1. Brick to Click Learning

The school district will begin the academic year with traditional, in-person classes, but will have planned and prepared for an outbreak that causes the school community to transition swiftly to distance learning.

2. Click to Brick Learning

The school district will continue online learning in the fall, monitoring public health benchmarks, and communicating with local government and health personnel to determine when it is safe to return to brick-and-mortar classrooms.

3. Blended learning

The school district will offer a hybrid learning environment, in which both face-to-face instruction and online instruction are provided in a consistent, easy-to-follow schedule throughout the year.

4. Online learning

The school district will provide all instruction, programming, and support services remotely so as to best protect the health and safety of students and staff.

What has taken place during the last two-and-a-half months, the authors contend, is “crisis distance learning,” brought on by near-ubiquitous restrictions on movement and stay-at-home orders since March. “The spectrum of crisis distance learning ranged from ‘drive-by’ course material pickups to telephone check-ins to haphazard online lesson plans and ad-hoc video conferences, all of which can be considered a low-fidelity migration to support continuity,” the authors write.

What this pandemic is showing us is that education is education, whether it serves primary school or postdoc.

  • Do you know which of these models (or a hybrid of more than one) your institution will be utilizing?  Hello, fall…you are literally coming at us.
  • Are you using this time to evaluate your approach to distance learning during that “trial by fire” time?

There seems to be some magical thinking going on right now with the pressures to improve the economy and get people back to work.  

  • What if another spike occurs as the result of the reopening of society in the absence of treatment or prevention?  
  • What is the plan if we go backward instead of forward?  A good plan allows for both. A good plan makes people feel protected and supported that there is a way forward, even when the path isn’t particularly clear.

If literally all of the models presented contain a fair bit of distance instruction, how we measure the efficacy of that instruction matters.

  • Is online exam proctoring part of your solution?  
  • Is the online proctoring service provider chosen one you can trust to do the right thing for you and your students? 

Also underpinning these various scenarios is the critical need for professional learning and development over the summer, the authors state.  

  • Do you and your Administrators include a plan to improve your quality of remote instruction?  
  • What resources are you using to up your online game?
  • How do you make online instruction interactive?  
  • Do you have edtech support?  If so, use them!  They are worth their weight in gold.
  • How familiar are you with online proctoring solutions?

Honorlock wants to help however we can.  If you or your students need help with understanding how remote proctoring works, what insights it can provide, or even the nuts and bolts of using the tool, we are here.  

Implement online proctoring with Honorlock Click below for more information

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Supporting Students Through Our New Normal

Did anyone get the number of that bus that just hit us?  If you felt a bit that way when COVID-19 started, you were not alone.

With the benefit of a bit of time in the rearview (and some of us earning our e-learning stripes), our viewpoint is beginning to shift from “do what?!?” to “how can I make this better?”

Click below to get information about implementing online proctoring when moving to online learning related to COVID.

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On April 22, 2020, InsideHigherEd published an interesting article on a new survey that asked 826 faculty members and administrators at 641 American colleges and universities how they fared in the recent “forced march” into digital learning.

The results were not surprising.

The major takeaways were:

  • (90 percent) engaged in some form of emergency distance/virtual education to conduct or complete the spring term
  • Almost two-thirds said they changed “the kinds of assignments or exams” they gave to students
  • Nearly half said they lowered their expectations for the amount of work students would be able to do (48 percent)

One of the most interesting aspects of the survey from our perspective was the question “What assistance would be most helpful for faculty” at the time of the survey.

Respondents’ number one answer was “Information on how to best support online students.”

Honorlock just so happened to host a webinar on change management that same week.  Here is a link to the recorded webinar if you are interested in learning more about change.  Hundreds of people registered and attended, so we know it was a topic that resonated.

Within that webinar, we had curated a list of resources for our attendees on the subject of how to support student learning during the transition.

We want to take the opportunity to share them in this blog as well. Two of the resources (Rutgers and Michigan) are more of an infographic, while the others were full-blown manuals on how to offer support.

While these are written primarily for their own institutions, there are great tidbits that can be gleaned.  Here are the links and a short summary of each of the resources.

University of Michigan – Adjusting your study habits during COVID

This is an overview of how to stay organized and adjust study habits, including a template for helping students set up a schedule that works for them, as well as tips for working in teams.

Rutgers University – Student remote learning tips

This handy reference offers tips on how to get online, find WiFi if you don’t have it, and managing your time.

Boise State University – Learning remotely: A guide for students

The Boise State University resource is an exhaustive guide to everything from taking care of yourself (including sections for LGBTQ students and those with disabilities) to an outline of various platforms and technologies that can be used to facilitate learning.

Lehigh University – Preparing for Remote Learning – 10 Crucial Steps

Lehigh University includes a short video on the 5 Steps to Online Classes

San Francisco State University – Keep Learning Student QuickGuide

The San Francisco State version contains how to get help front and center at the top of the guide. Sometimes that information is buried deep in a document, and when students are in a panic, it’s helpful to have those contact numbers front and center.

But back to the survey numbers for just a moment.

Educators were able to use tools like our digital assessment software to not only adjust to a new way of instructional delivery – a herculean feat – but also to make dispensations for the amount of work as well as the type of work they assigned to students.

This change was not easy for anyone. Our students were leaving campus for home (if they were one of the lucky ones), figuring out how to participate in learning, juggling space, schedules, and mindset to navigate the pandemic, keeping families safe and perhaps even dealing with food insecurity, the list goes on.

Through it all, you kept the educational fires burning. It may have felt to you like a bit of a dumpster fire at first, but you persevered and whether you realize it or not, you helped your students by modeling behaviors that helped them see “we can get through this together.”

Your number one need from the survey (and Honorlock would concur from our webinar results), was to be of help to your students. Honorlock can think of no finer commentary on the state of education in the country today.

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

5 Things You Should Know About Change Management

A great deal of potential change in higher education has been identified. These changes are also all happening simultaneously. It would be wonderful if life provided just as much change as we humans could handle and wait patiently to deliver the next round. That isn’t how change—or life for that matter— works.

So how can change be made easier or more palatable? Whether you are an individual or a leader managing a team through change, having greater knowledge of change management information helps a great deal.

Thing One: Getting Smarter About What Change Management Is

Change management is defined as the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change to achieve the required outcome. Change management techniques incorporate the organizational tools that can be utilized to help individuals make successful personal transitions resulting in the adoption and realization of change.7

That definition didn’t say a word about a project management spreadsheet, which is what most people think of when grappling with organizational change. Absolutely there will be spreadsheets in any change initiative, but the human side of change is what the art of change management is about.

Tasks can be legislated, assigned and tracked all day long, but that doesn’t mean the workforce embraces them. Many times, that is how change efforts fail. In fact, nearly every time a change effort fails, someone did not shepherd the human component.

Thing Two: Realizing Change Management Really Does Work

Effective change management is a success enabler. Research on thousands of initiatives shows a direct correlation between how well the people side of change is managed (change management) and how successful the effort is.

Thing Three: Secure All Constituencies Affected by Change

For change to work, a high degree of collaboration is needed from those who want to see the change implemented with ones who will be affected by the change. It’s that second segment that is the most overlooked.

The easiest way to ascertain if a change effort is on the right track is to ask the simple question “Who here are the users?” or “How are the users represented?” If the change team can’t answer that question or the response sounds something like, “Their supervisors will get them on board,” you have a problem.

Disengaged users will avoid at best, and at worst, even sabotage your change efforts. If the change desired makes their work harder (and you didn’t do your homework to figure that out), they will not embrace the change.

Thing Four: Don’t Outsource Your Responsibility For Managing Change

Ron Ashkenash in the Harvard Business Review notes:

“The content of change management is reasonably correct, but the managerial capacity to implement it has been woefully underdeveloped. In fact, instead of strengthening managers’ ability to manage change, we’ve instead allowed managers to outsource change management to HR specialists and consultants instead of taking accountability themselves – an approach that often doesn’t work”

This is closely tied to Thing Three. Managers are often completely overlooked, overwhelmed and then responsible for a mission-critical change effort, which adds to the anxiety of the change effort. Think about change in your own institutions. Who in your reporting order is managing your change?

Thing Five: Adopt a “Bucket Approach” Way of Thinking

If you are a manager helping your staff through change, here is an easy way to gauge whether or not your efforts are on target.

When employees adapt or adjust to change, they make a choice to invest their valuable resources. Time, effort, cognitive and physical energy are all invested by employees to make sense of their changing workplace. Employees must learn new information and skills, change their behaviors, and even think and feel differently. Quite frankly, it can be exhausting.

Not only can a turbulent workplace reduce employees’ commitment to their organization, but multiple changes may also deplete employees’ resources to the point where they become dissatisfied and are no longer able to invest high levels of involvement in their work.

Once their bucket is empty or near empty, these workers—your workers —look elsewhere.

However, many employees are successful through change, so what do they do differently? They believe the change will impact their job positively. Not the institution’s view of success, but their own personal job satisfaction.

Who Can Help With This?

If you are a part of a large institution that has the means to drive large complex change initiatives, you are in luck. Most likely they will have the resources to shepherd change. However, if you see that various constituencies might be left out, you have a duty to raise a flag.

In smaller institutions who may be struggling with change, there are a variety of models, resources, and change management tools that are worth investigating to assist yourself in dealing with change or to support your teams.

If workers feel the change will help them refill their bucket somehow at some future point—more time saved, better outcomes, better networking—whatever it is that drives that individual, the change will more likely be perceived as “good.”

It behooves managers that are managing through change to actively monitor where their employees are in regard to their buckets. Is the bucket leaking? Or is it filling? Are you helping them see the positives? Are you enlisting those that are doing better to help those that are still struggling? Peer and manager support through change is vital.

The moral of the story is that the tighter you as a manager are with the perceptions and feelings of the staff navigating change, the more successful you will be.

Learn more in our whitepaper: Succeeding in the Maelstrom of Change: Unique Challenges in Higher Education.

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Succeeding in Times of Change: Challenges in Higher Education

Download:

Whitepaper: Succeeding in the Maelstrom of Change

Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.

Academic Leadership During Crisis: 5 steps to improve skills

If you are a leader now or just being called to lead during the COVID pandemic, leadership right this moment is feeling not so fun. Figuring out a plan forward is critical, but it is also daunting.  

Higher education leaders play a pivotal role in helping their institutions not only cope but succeed in these difficult times.

Though it seems overwhelming, it is paramount to get out of the gate quickly and pull together a workable strategy for going forward. This is no different than what you’ve been doing in crisis, but this lens is more about how do we get through the shock of it all and use our academic leadership skills and talents to not only surmount this challenge but also prepare for the next pandemic, the next business interrupter.

Chief Learning Officer magazine provided an article using the ADAPT model for leading through change that we’ve adapted slightly to apply to the situation we find ourselves in at present.

Analyze

Analyze the impact on your institution. Evaluate how this pandemic will affect your students, your colleagues, and how work gets done. Some key questions to consider are:

  • How prepared are we to do more with less? Now that the newness of the crisis is waning, have we assessed who may need additional training?
  • Are we becoming familiar with the telework shift — both in terms of the work process and technologies as well as the change in mindset from in-person to virtual?  What needs to happen to take this to the next level.  How will we go from alarm/reaction to a higher level of proficiency?
  • Has our supply chain been impacted? What are the provisions to address this? For example, do we need to secure, onboard and train new suppliers in the face of this pandemic?  This can be applied to people, supplies or even hardware/software needed to succeed.
  • Do we need to ramp production at our schools and colleges and, if so, does that require onboarding newly hired personnel or cross-training current employees? What can we do to reduce ramp-up time?  Do you need more instructional designers? How do you ramp up those designers to be able to support your move to digital? What do they need to know? Do you need to do your own instructional design?

Devise

Devise a plan to engage your community. The impact analysis should drive both the audience and the topics. This where every bit of your performance-consulting acumen will be leveraged to quickly and effectively tease out the specific challenges and discuss the impact on human capital. Starting with the end in mind (an actionable plan with roles/responsibilities) will help ensure you keep focus, get buy-in and establishes a clear path forward in terms of the next steps.

Assess

Assess your options. Tough times call for new approaches and new ways of thinking. If you still leverage instructor-led training, what is your business continuity plan? Key considerations include unwinding all the various ILT planning and logistics; evaluating other modalities, namely virtual instructor-led training; and migrating existing ILT into new modalities.  

Finally, if there ever was a spot-on situation for microlearning, this is it. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to micro elearning, either. All options should be on the table: podcasts, videos, infographics, quick reference guides, and so on. Less is more — more on-point learning and more opportunities to create additional content.

Prioritize

Prioritize your plans. In times of turmoil, everything seems important and things can quickly turn chaotic. Some training will need to take precedence over others and hard decisions will have to be made. Just like some international hospitals are having to triage patients, so might we need to triage learning. Some learning will be strategic and therefore high priority while other training will be addressed in a more tactical manner and with less priority. The key to prioritizing your plans involves consulting your department head, a trusted mentor, or another leader to get another point of view and a second set of eyes. This person can check if your plan is on-target, is close but could be tweaked, or has some gaps or blind spots that need to be addressed. Having a second opinion to glean objective insights will not only validate your plan but help you achieve needed buy-in and set your plan up for a successful implementation.

Track

Track both projects and intelligence. “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” applies here. Efforts should not be managed as a series of disparate, disconnected projects. There needs to be a master plan that oversees all individual projects in a coordinated way (program management). Things are very fluid, and priorities may need to shift. Keeping a dashboard view of all the moving parts allows the learning leader to manage to the strategic outcomes and adjust individual components as needed to ensure the overall needs of the institution are being met. This is also a great time to turn data into information. Are we tracking for completion or for competence? Any data generated should be leveraged to inform future learning solutions to benefit both the learner and the institution.

ADAPT

This unprecedented time offers both challenges and choices: 

  • Moving from reactive to more of a proactive stance
  • Leading versus managing
  • Being a catalyst for creative solutions that help drive your institution through this period of difficulty and uncertainty 

 Now is the time for learning leaders of all stripes in all areas of our higher education institutions to ascend, and this ADAPT model for academic leadership skills can help you keep track of where you are in that process.  

Remember, the only difference between a leader and a coward is the direction they run when they are scared.

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Jan Wilson

As an organizational development and learning consultant, Jan has provided strategic planning, process alignment, change management, curriculum development and planning, as well as learning solutions to a variety of clients in pharma, healthcare and state governments. Jan earned a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in information technology from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Master of Education in Human Resource Development from Vanderbilt University, also in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally, she has served as adjunct faculty at the Peabody School of Vanderbilt University.