Adapting to Remote Learning - Our Workday Team Weighs In

With colleges and universities forced to adapt remote learning as part of Coronavirus response, what do you think the long-range impact will be? Will educators embrace or buck the trend? What changes and what stays the same?

We asked our Workday Student team for their insight. Here’s what they had to say:

Yadira Tate, Principal Consultant, Student Solution Architect, Student Recruiting & Admissions, Avaap

With colleges and universities forced to adapt remote learning as part of Coronavirus response, the long-range impact will be that most institutions are going to adapt to a new way of teaching and learning. Many institutions that were afraid to take these steps were thrown into fire by trial and can use the experience to expand their offerings and programs. The higher education industry can sometimes create challenges when implementing new processes or technology. Institutions now have ability to implement and learn quickly how to best connect with their students, staff, and other stakeholders.

I also believe this will allow institutions to become more creative in how they attract and retain prospects and students. Technology capabilities will increase, and new opportunities will be created to meet those capabilities. I can see college recruiters using Skype and Zoom to conduct college visits and presentations to students and families. I can also see administrators implementing more streamlined processes to be able to quickly assist their student populations.

Josh Kelley, Student Architect, Student Core and Records, Avaap

With colleges and universities forced to adapt remote learning as part of Coronavirus response, the impact will be significant simply in terms of the timeline shift. In general, educators have been ready to brace the move to online learning and expand their online offerings. Many college and universities were already adapting a more flexible learning environment however, some schools took a more cautious approach to pilot online learning. We’ll see educators re-evaluating their remote learning tools more closely in the scope of building a permanent infrastructure as opposed to building an experimental infrastructure. As the trend to online learning continues, the tools by which the trend will be executed will be subject to change.

Annaleah Morrow, Project/Engagement Manager, Higher Education, Avaap

Once we have made it through the period of crisis, institutions have an interesting opportunity to evaluate what worked well remotely – and what could work well remotely if given better support systems.

If institutions learn from this time, rather than just go back to work as usual there are opportunities to provide more streamlined services to students and staff, simplify processes, and opportunities to meet students where they are. Students have had higher expectation for remote options for many years but have accepted the status quo because there were few alternatives. Now that they have seen institutions show their ability to quickly pivot and offer remote services in new ways, student expectations may also evolve.

Brian Oakey, Consultant, Avaap

After speaking with some of my old professors and former colleagues, it’s clear COVID-19’s impact necessitates innovation and improvement not only for distance learning and remote education, but innovation and access to campus technology in-general. The pandemic has forced many of former colleagues to quickly adapt to remote work, occasionally with limited or no access to critical data or shadow systems only available on-campus. Higher education observers and IT professionals should anticipate a faster shift to cloud technologies, allowing for easier access of data, systems, and student information from anywhere. It’s challenging to teach a class virtually if the professor is unable to pull your class roster from home.