(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-02)
Gazi, Yakut; Baker, Nelson C.
Institutions that have been in the forefront of not only online but also of at-scale and affordable learning have been leaders of a “vertical” scale, where a limited number of programs and courses were built that sustain a vertical growth of enrollments. Responding to the COVID-19 global health crisis on our campuses entailed wide collaboration and coordination of not only technological capabilities but also human talent distributed across our institutions, to be able to quickly pivot to a “horizontal” scale of many students distributed over many courses, taught by many faculty. This book is an international compilation of institutional responses to this “horizontal scaling” of remote and online delivery of courses. Each chapter gives the context of activities at each institution/organization, followed by the strategy or operational tactics of the coordinated emergency response, highlighting successes, sharing lessons learned, charting future ambitions. The goal of this book is to distill strategies for responding to the need to quickly pivot and meet the needs of a horizontal scaling of learning as a result of emergencies.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-02)
Gazi, Yakut; Baker, Nelson C.; Sibley, Karen
The essays in this volume and many other stories from the 2020 global pandemic
illustrate the challenges of urgent horizontal scale in technology mediated instruction. Many say
this experience will serve to accelerate instructional change long underway and perhaps to put
the ultimate spotlight on issues of equity, access and cost. As they look toward the post-COVID
future our authors coalesce around the compelling necessity to develop a stable and
dependable ecosystem of learning technologies enabling the talent resources and expertise to
guide and support faculty, create meaningful learner engagement, and pursue new
opportunities for effective, accessible, affordable higher education.