Thinking Full-Speed Ahead at Instructure's Future of Education Collaborative
A Q&A with FIU Online's Maikel Alendy
Every higher education institution on our planet experienced it: the rush to adjust all our business and academic processes in ways that would help us survive the COVID-19 pandemic.
Every institution experienced the onset of the pandemic differently. Each institution had its own set of challenges, and each had its own degree of preparedness.
But we all had one thing in common: The pressure was on, to be agile, and to be smart about the choices we had to make in such short order.
Now, while we are not yet free from COVID-19, many institutions and technology market leaders are looking at at the next big questions: What's in the future? Which of the changes we make during the pandemic should move with us into the future?
Most agree, we're not going back to the way we were. Related discussions are taking place both informally and in professional associations or at higher education and K-12 event vehicles like Instructure's Future of Education Collaborative.
Here, CT speaks with Maikel Alendy, an instructional design leader at Florida International University, who will serve as a panelist at a Future of Education Collaborative event to be held online later this week.
"I think when faculty, these brilliant truth investigators and knowledge creators pair those qualities with a passion to give learners the tools to feed their families and provide for their communities, higher ed is doing what higher ed is supposed to do." —Maikel Alendy
Mary Grush: If you look, in general, at higher education's response to the pandemic, Zoom meetings figured particularly large in putting classes online where they never existed before. We often hear stats of the amazing growth of Zoom use at higher education institutions, once we were all in the pandemic.
What was your approach at FIU? Did you rely a lot on Zoom? Were you able to use your existing Canvas course sites? What worked for you, and how much of this was already in place at FIU?
Maikel Alendy: Our director of learning design and innovation at FIU Online, Gaby Alvarez, likes to use a word that I think was foundational to our strategy to navigate learning through the pandemic — that word is ecosystem.
Our approach, like many, was to leverage Canvas and Zoom, but we had a few processes in place that gave us really a big head start. First, we had piloted Zoom years before and had already rolled out Zoom Pro accounts for all FIU faculty and students. Of course, the initial adoption was nominal. Usage was fine for "BC" (Before COVID) instruction. Still, it was helpful, once in the pandemic, that we already had support materials and some awareness of the tools.
Grush: What else did you have in your ecosystem? Was it enough?
Alendy: Additionally, we had already set in place, through initiatives from our provost's office and direction from FIU Online's interim AVP, Lia Prevolis, to pair every FIU course section with a Canvas shell. That meant that we already had a process in place where Canvas shells were created for each course taught at FIU and students enrolled in that course were also enrolled in its corresponding shell regardless of the modality.
Now, all of these things were in place in 2020. However, that was just not enough. The suddenness, and the systematic progression of this global pandemic were too disruptive for well-laid plans to prevent overwhelming effects on instruction.
The suddenness, and the systematic progression of this global pandemic were too disruptive for well-laid plans to prevent overwhelming effects on instruction.
Grush: What were you able to do, in the face of that? I know you ultimately prevailed…
Alendy: Something that really changed the game for us was that we provided faculty "remote training ready" workshops that upon completion produced a badge that reported to LinkedIn. The combination of timely support, expert instructional design professionals, and the novelty of badges really exploded faculty interest and expertise. We were churning out Canvas intermediate scholars and top-level Zoom performers — and many of these were faculty who previously might have needed help saving documents in Word. And I have to mention we also increased circulation of our faculty online newsletter and put on monthly faculty webinars from Canvas experts for our own faculty. It was this ecosystem of organic innovation that really took Zoom and Canvas to new levels at FIU.
Grush: Thanks, that gives me a pretty good picture of what you were doing at FIU.
Now, I'd like to ask you, were there any significant changes in instructional design goals at FIU? One thing I keep hearing about in general is a trend toward collaborative learning. Is that the case at FIU? For example, is there something about online learning formats that pulls us towards collaborative learning — putting less emphasis on content delivery and more on collaboration?
Alendy: Oh my goodness, this question gets me so excited. I am not sure if you know this but the "I" in FIU stands for International. Something incredible that occurred during the pandemic was that our university invested in and proliferated a teaching format known as COIL: Collaborative Online International Learning.
This instructional format focuses on nurturing a relationship between two faculty in different countries with similar course content to develop a learning activity or entire course with intentional collaborative activities between students in both countries. The pandemic, as you can imagine, was the perfect time for this idea to skyrocket.
Work, that in the past required plane tickets and conference centers, could be replaced and even improved by Zoom meetings and asynchronous content management systems like the Canvas LMS. I worked with two particularly brilliant faculty members, one out of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada and the other at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, to COIL my fall and spring semesters.
Work, that in the past required plane tickets and conference centers, could be replaced and even improved by Zoom meetings and asynchronous content management systems like the Canvas LMS.
In the fall of 2020, students used Canvas Free for teachers and Zoom to conduct large-scale discussions on the impacts, and their hopes and fears, of technological singularity. In the following spring, another set of students created and developed websites in their efforts to solve international problems identified by students in both countries.
So collaboration is definitely a focus, especially because of the potential to develop community. And the value of that community was realized during the pandemic.
Collaboration is definitely a focus, especially because of the potential to develop community.
Grush: Are discovery-based or experiential learning models turning up more, somehow stemming out of online course practices?
Alendy: I think this is a dangerous question. The answer is yes, but the dangerous part of that yes is that it implies that something happened or needed to happen in order for discovery-based or experiential learning finally to occur, online. Any instructional design expert who is also a faculty member will tell you that these two learning styles were occurring online and had been in their courses. But, what the pandemic did was to require faculty to dig deeper and challenge their traditional approach to online learning in order to squeeze out all the potential.
I had a geography teacher in middle school who used to say necessity is the mother of ingenuity. I think that's why we are seeing this explosion in discovery-based and experiential learning. Canvas could always facilitate this; it's just the rest of us during this past year who had to figure out how to make it happen.
Grush: Is course content sort of shape shifting? If so, how?
Alendy: Absolutely! I think something that we are seeing that is beautiful and at the same time disappointing is that content is now not only being evaluated for academic qualities, but also for accessibility and affordability. These are components of quality course content that should have already been foundational.
Content is now not only being evaluated for academic qualities, but also for accessibility and affordability. These are components of quality course content that should have already been foundational.
We are seeing the emergence of OER services and instructional material everywhere. I really love and admire the work coming out of Rice University's OpenStax program. And for accessibility we see tools like Ally and UDOIT, the Universal Design Online Content Inspection Tool. Even the websites you're navigating to purchase business cards, or design your dream Tesla — you can tell what I was doing during the flight on my way here — really highlight the need to make content accessible to all.
And let me mention that accessible material also takes into consideration representation — meaning using images that reflect our diverse populations of learners and curating material from authors who also reflect the communities that shape knowledge.
Accessible material also takes into consideration representation — meaning using images that reflect our diverse populations of learners and curating material from authors who also reflect the communities that shape knowledge.
Grush: What are you hearing from Canvas? I know that's an article in itself, at least, but what would you highlight that seems to be a priority for them right now?
Alendy: Meaningful learning gains is what comes to mind here. And I think the story of Canvas is also the story of Instructure. Just listen to Canvas movers and shakers like Mark Boothe, the senior director of digital marketing for Instructure, and watch Instructure's partners and acquisitions. I have seen Instructure strongly invest in tools that give learners robust opportunities to engage with each other and their instructors while giving administrators and educators the functionality they need to qualify and codify the impact of their teaching interventions. We can see this reflected in the business function of Impact, a relatively new acquisition to the Instructure family. And Canvas is prioritizing data-driven engagement. At least that's what I am hearing from those at the helm, and what I see in the relationships Instructure invests in.
Grush: How are students reacting to changes in their LMS, and in their online course tools?
Alendy: Is this a safe space? Because I am going to answer truthfully. I don't think we know yet. I think many of these students do not really appreciate the significance of this time in human history. They see all this change as a crazy thing that happened, and that, along with other disruptions related to the pandemic, has taken over so much of their life that they really haven't had the time to qualify the value of these changes everywhere.
Think about when cell phones first came out. It was not until I was 30 that I realized how cell phones completely destroyed my thinking about watches. Why use a watch when there is something in my pocket that tells me the time whenever I want. In the same way, this crazy pandemic has changed so much of what we take for granted as normal. I do not think students have had time to realize the changes in their LMS. And for those who have realized, it's such a stark shift that it is producing cognitive dissonance: what they thought an online course should be, next to what an online course can be.
From a student's perspective, something that develops community, connects you with international learners, gives you the opportunity to learn through discovery and experiential activities… All that just adds up to more crazy things during crazy times. Ultimately, I think these students have grown up in so much disruption that many of these changes almost seem like a long time coming. They are wrestling with the confluence of low expectations and personalized and challenging but rewarding learning experiences.
Grush: So really, from where you sit in the heart of instructional design, do you think FIU instructional delivery and course design priorities are on the right track? Are FIU students really going to be better off?
Alendy: Definitely. I think when faculty, these brilliant truth investigators and knowledge creators pair those qualities with a passion to give learners the tools to feed their families and provide for their communities, higher ed is doing what higher ed is supposed to do.
I think with our affordability initiatives, our commitment to COIL, and our drive to increase the quality of all of our online courses by means of making all learning material more accessible, FIU is assuring that learning at our university is relevant and meaningful. Personalized, engaging, affordable, challenging, online instruction does exactly that.
Grush: Alright, then do you think that students actually feel they are better off? Are they that perceptive about course design and about the technology tools in their midst?
Alendy: I am sorry to use this card again, but I do not think students are taking the time to consider this right now. This pandemic is still raging. They are thinking how the pandemic has disrupted what they thought they were going to be doing to make money and take care of their future kids and aging parents; how it has prevented them from doing all the shadowing they thought they needed for med school, or prevented them from working and making enough money to pay for that LSAT prep course. But in that same spirit, I think these students know that they can find life partners through apps like Hinge online, meet friends they will invite to their weddings in a League of Legends game room online, and learn how to install a dishwasher on YouTube online.
I think when we get our LMS to its true potential our students will feel as if finally, this all makes sense. We won't get confetti emojis from them on our teaching evaluations, but we'll see more moments when students feel like learning has truly become personalized and relevant. We'll start seeing words like realized, surprised, and grateful in Canvas discussions and in Turnitin essays. Students know what great online experiences look like; they are just dealing with a life-altering global pandemic right now and are hoping we will do the work to help them get through this and onto the other side.
Students know what great online experiences look like; they are just dealing with a life-altering global pandemic right now and are hoping we will do the work to help them get through this and onto the other side.
Grush: And finally: How are faculty responding to all the changes? Nobody, I expect, is going to be tap dancing about the pandemic, but what are you observing about faculty right now? I've heard, as I think we all have, that faculty have been amazing during the pandemic, in general, and have worked hard to make whatever changes needed to be made. But are they feeling like they've advanced — or like they just took their medicine?
Alendy: Faculty have really dug deep and stepped out of their comfort zones to be better educators. That is a fact. I see that, when I go to workshops now and see faces there I have never seen before. And I know that, when I hear faculty tell me that students have told them personal stories they never would have heard face-to-face.
Faculty have definitely advanced, and what's more they have found a community that sees that and celebrates along with them. I think before the pandemic we had the early adopters and those gold-star faculty who got into all this much earlier, for teaching. However, the pandemic has brought all faculty to the same place with their students — to a place where the only thing that we did not need to socially distance was understanding. The majority of faculty have advanced and I expect that this will only encourage more to do so.
Faculty have really dug deep and stepped out of their comfort zones to be better educators. That is a fact… They have definitely advanced, and what's more they have found a community that sees that and celebrates along with them.
Grush: Will institutions continue to make bold changes, even in future years, when we'll (hopefully) not be under pressure from a pandemic? Will they remember how they were able to think "full-speed ahead"?
Alendy: I think a few institutions will continue to make bold changes because that's what they do and that's what has allowed them to succeed and grow. But truthfully, our response in higher education has been chronically late. We have not been intentional about staying ahead of being disrupted. I think we tend to get comfortable, especially when the tools we have are so powerful and robust.
We have not been intentional about staying ahead of being disrupted. I think we tend to get comfortable, especially when the tools we have are so powerful and robust.
I teach an epistemology course and I always tell my students, "Be careful, because the truth is, most people would rather be comfortable than happy or successful." I think it's going to be very easy to get comfortable again after the pandemic has come and gone. I hope I'm wrong, but as that middle school geography teacher I mentioned earlier also said frequently, "Humans are creatures of habit."
[Editor's note: Maikel Alendy is the Learning Design Innovation Manager with FIU Online. The Future of Education Collaborative is a mini think tank created by Instructure. You can join its online event, August 11 for a K-12 focus and August 12 for higher education. Photo courtesy of Florida International University.]