From Out of the Shutdown

Undoubtedly, the pandemic of 2020 was the greatest public health challenge the nation and entire world has faced in the 21st century. It disrupted the normal course of American life in every way imaginable, and higher education was especially impacted. Universities were forced to adapt in ways they couldn’t have foreseen or prepared for, and not all of them endured the crisis in the same way.

Yet throughout the entire ordeal UMass Boston not only managed to persevere, but it emerged from it in some ways stronger than when it began. Part of the reason may be due to the university not cancelling the Spring 2020 semester and the innovative technologies introduced by the IT department that allowed classes to continue despite the campus closure. Staff, students, and faculty had to work, learn, and teach from their homes, and they could because of IT’s immediate response, which resulted in many educational enhancements still in use today.   

Associate Chief Information Officer Apurva Mehta reflected back on the role IT played in those dark days, and noted how some of the technologies brought to bear with the pandemic are now fully integrated into the university. People are most familiar with the hybrid learning system that was quickly implemented and allowed students and faculty to access their classes remotely, with very little class time being lost. This system, now known as BeaconFlex, is in greater use now than it was during the pandemic and is the focus of another IT Outcomes article (p. 16). But Apurva described some other, lesser known IT innovations that were instrumental in helping UMass Boston get through the closure.  

Apurva said that one significant issue IT had to address regarding the remote learning modality was academic integrity. Unfortunately, when exams were taken in classes being held remotely, there was no way for faculty to monitor students to ensure they weren’t cheating by looking up answers on other websites. So, IT invested in a program called Honorlock. “Basically what it does is let the faculty member using a webcam to keep it looking at the students. But the real intelligence piece is that it would record every student session and would determine based upon some algorithm and recommend that we look at a certain student’s recording,” Apurva explained. Previously, the university had a system called Respondus, which blocked students from opening up any other tabs on their computers besides the one they were taking the exam on. But while this worked for in-person classes it didn’t for remote learning because students could just use their phones or some other device. Respondus eventually improved its technology so that it used the same algorithm as Honorlock, so the university still uses it today.  

However, academic integrity was just one problem IT needed to address in regard to remote learning, as it was far from the only problem faculty had teaching in the new modality. Understandably, faculty who for their entire careers were used to teaching in-person, had to have a different skill set for the hybrid environment but had no time to develop those skills. It was up to IT to provide on-the-job training as well as new technology to enhance the remote teaching experience. Learning Design Services helped with training with expanded office hours, when they would consult with faculty and answer their questions on operating equipment or hybrid teaching in general.

Technologically, one nifty addition that IT made to the remote classroom was a device known as a document camera. Faculty could write something for the class under it and it would appear to students attending remotely as if it were written on a whiteboard. The larger story from this is that IT didn’t stop after adding hybrid learning technology and Zoom licenses just so remote classes could be held as soon as possible. They continually fine-tuned the experience with faculty training and technological upgrades and improved the quality of learning that could be had remotely. And these refinements have become integrated into the BeaconFlex system that is still in use today.  

One article isn’t sufficient to capture the bigger picture of how IT’s response to the pandemic and resulting campus closure planted the seeds of the more dynamic UMass Boston of today, so continue reading to learn more.