It’s not every semester a University has to completely reconfigure its modus operandi on short notice. Here’s, in part, how UMF shifted from in-person to fully remote learning in a matter of days.
Words by Ashley Montgomery, Mary Dindorf, and Niki Woodhouse / Photos by Ryan Mastrangelo
Ashley Montgomery, Assistant Dean of Teaching, Learning & Assessment at UMF, is always ready to tackle a BrightSpace question from faculty.
What are your philosophies on using technology in the classroom both for in-person and remote classes?
Ashley Montgomery – The pandemic triggered a revision of my philosophy. How can technology contribute to learning goals in ways that enhance connections, collaboration, and relationships? When the tech is invisible and the focus is on learning, that is when an instructor knows they made the right choices. The technology cannot replicate everything we can do in person, but it can provide us with a lot of options. If you are teaching remotely and traditionally teach in person, it is important to remember that the learning experience will be different for students. Why? Because there are some instructional practices that can be approximated online, but not always replicated. This means we need to remain focused on the learning goals & how we can best meet them whether in-person or in remote classes. The design should always fit their personal approach to teaching, be sustainable, and align with faculty goals for student learning.
Niki Woodhouse – I agree with Ashley that the tech to support remote classes should feel invisible and IT strives to provide that as much as possible. At the same time, technology is such a huge part of our personal and professional lives that there’s no escaping it. The more we can empower our students, faculty, and staff with the same tools and resources used outside of the classroom, the more successful and effective they will be.
What was the shift to emergency remote learning in spring 2020 like for you?
Ashley Montgomery – It was a frenetic time, but we were impressed with how UMF faculty, many of whom had never taught online, rose to the occasion to create learning environments that would work for students in their courses. In our role supporting faculty, we are there to remind them that this is emergency online teaching and not the traditional online teaching scenario. This reminder was meant to temper their expectations and focus on what was sustainable and manageable for them and their students for the remainder of the term.
Niki Woodhouse – Several times this spring I recall saying “pressure makes diamonds” when describing the efforts and accomplishments of so many people and teams, including IT, in the University of Maine System (UMS). As a centralized support organization, University Services: IT kicked large-scale planning efforts into gear sometime in February. Contingency and crisis plans were dusted off, and team-level business continuity plans were solidified. Our Help Desk staff adapted almost daily to the constantly changing resources and requirements. They quickly shifted from providing phone support in their on-campus team hubs to email and live chat services from their homes. They immediately began helping anyone, from anywhere. In addition to “putting our own masks on” IT simultaneously began preparations to support remote learning, teaching and working. Some project timelines were advanced including the expansion of our current learning management system and rollout of our new Learning Management System (LMS), BrightSpace. Ashley and Mary successfully led UMF through the BrightSpace transition, resulting in a 127% increase in online course delivery for Farmington.
Niki Woodhouse, UMF Campus IT Officer, stands in front of a newly-upgraded classroom with web-conferencing capabilities. She and her staff spent all summer working to update nearly 30 classrooms at UMF.
What were the key takeaways from the end of the spring semester and how did they inform your decisions for the fall?
Ashley Montgomery – In cycling, there is a thing called a “false flat” where you are riding along and you see a stretch of road ahead that looks flat and you assume the ride will be smooth. But after a time, you start to feel fatigued and wonder what is wrong with you, but you keep pedaling because this shouldn’t be so hard. A false flat is a stretch of road that looks flat but is actually a gradual incline that isn’t perceptible to the eye. It looks like something you can manage, but it is actually extra work and gets harder to manage the longer you ride.
This term, false flat, is essential to our decisions for how we can support faculty taking what they learned from the 5-weeks of emergency remote teaching in the spring, along with their instructional goals, the limited planning time available over the summer, and map out an approach for the 15-week fall semester. There were, and continue to be, so many unknowns about this fall, similar to a “false flat” situation, we need to slow down, conserve energy, rest when we can, and most of all, stop asking what is wrong with us. We have all been pushing up this gradual hill and cannot yet see the end of it.
What technology upgrades were installed to make fall 2020 a success for faculty and students teaching and learning in various modalities?
Ashley Montgomery and Mary Dindorf – To be as ready as possible for the fall required that we invest time this summer to identify the best technology options for the classrooms and to support remote instruction. With Mary’s leadership, we were able to offer extensive training opportunities for faculty with Brightspace, as well as tools like Zoom, Kaltura, etc.
Niki Woodhouse – IT’s work kicked into full gear even before the spring semester was over. Efforts to sustain, or further develop, solutions implemented in March continued through August when much of IT’s summer work was focused on installing the Board of Trustees’ funded web conferencing equipment. After working closely with campus leadership and division chairs, we were able to double capacity and now have nearly 30 rooms across the UMF campus providing Zoom capabilities for both in-room and remote participation.
Additional new IT initiatives were rolled out in record time, including remote computer lab and STEM-related virtual lab access for students as well as remote access VPN and remote desktop services to support work from afar. All have proven critical for more effective learning, teaching, and work off-campus.
UMF Instructional Designer Mary Dindorf helped execute extensive training for faculty on the new Learning Management System, BrightSpace.
What has been the biggest challenge and biggest success so far?
Ashley Montgomery and Mary Dindorf – Most of the challenges we have seen are connected to bandwidth, accessibility, and the demands on the tools available. To be more specific, everyone everywhere went online at about the same time, so connectivity was the biggest challenge for many students, and faculty and tools like Zoom were seeing demand that far surpassed anything seen before.
Niki Woodhouse – For me, at least, not being able to solve every technological barrier that our students have off-campus has been the most frustrating. Many of our students live in the rural areas of Maine that do not have high-speed internet availability. Most of them can’t even get a decent cell signal.
New Learning Management System (LMS), BrightSpace, UMF homepage.
What further changes are in place for when classes shift back to fully remote modalities at Thanksgiving?
Mary Dindorf – This time we have a headstart and can help faculty with planning, unlike the spring shift to online learning. We are designing resources to support this work and to help faculty and students better understand the availability and limitations of technology once everyone is back off-campus.
Niki Woodhouse – Our asymptomatic testing results are proving that our students, faculty, and staff are committed to keeping each other safe. Regardless of what happens, all of the systems and services that were provided in March are still in place now. We’re ready to support our students, faculty, and staff even more quickly than before.
Any silver linings, or is it too soon to tell?
Ashley Montgomery – This isn’t an easy lesson to learn, but teaching online or hybrid courses helps us see the gaps in our teaching practice more clearly, and those lessons can make you a better educator. The degree of resiliency and flexibility in the UMF community that this experience has brought to light, is definitely a silver lining during this time.
Niki Woodhouse – The spring semester wasn’t ideal for anyone, but there were many moments and outcomes deserving of the silver lining label. A “study from car” initiative involved partnerships with hundreds of schools and libraries, expanding available high-speed internet access across the state. Vendors stepped up in big ways to help IT provide needed resources. By softening their license requirements, offering free internet access, or expanding their services many of the companies we use today made a hugely positive impact last semester.
Ashley Montgomery is the Assistant Dean of Teaching, Learning & Assessment at UMF & is starting her 20th year at UMF this fall. In her work at the University of Maine at Farmington, she teaches both first-year and graduate classes. She also mentors new faculty, supports all aspects of faculty teaching and technology integration. As a fairly proficient user of technology, when she is asked to troubleshoot technology, she responds “I know how to drive the car, but please don’t ask me to fix it.”
Mary Dindorf is new to UMF, having started this summer as the UMF Instructional Designer. In her work so far, Mary has enjoyed working with faculty as they prepared and implemented their fall courses using Brightspace, the new learning management system. Mary is from New Hampshire, where she was previously teaching and designing online courses.
Niki Woodhouse joined IT at UMF in 2011. Having worked in the service industry for most of her life, she was thrilled when a job posting for a technical support specialist stressed strong customer service skills. As IT Manager for Saddleback at the time, Woodhouse felt she had sufficient experience for the entry-level position and was hired in June. In 2015 she became her team’s Manager, in charge of IT Support Services on campus. In 2019 she became the Campus IT Officer at UMF. Serving as a liaison between the campus and University Services:IT, she now works with other campus and IT leaders on the strategic planning and coordination of IT services in Farmington.