How did pivoting to remote student services due to COVID-19 provide equity of access between online and campus-based students? Presenters address findings from a study exploring the nature of online units at 31 HEIs. The interviews focusing on Student Support were completed during the COVID-19 crisis. What resulted were highly nuanced and informative data suggesting that student support for online students in areas previously not addressed were suddenly not only at the center of administrators’ discussions but also growing in capacity. The findings contribute to a growing body of knowledge that highlights gaps between student support services offered to campus-based students versus those offered to online students. Ironically, many chief online officers may posit that online students may need more support than their campus-based peers who benefit from affordances of a physical community. A lingering question is whether the support for online (and remote) students gained during the pivot to emergency remote teaching and learning during COVID-19 is here to stay, or merely a temporary fix for campus-based students–prompting our research team to question the true lines of demarcation of student support for students, modality aside. Further, it prompts important inquiry into equity between campus-based and online student support and highlights the need for more emphasis on equitable service for all.
Dr. Bettyjo Bouchey is Associate Professor and Dean of Online Education at National Louis University where she is responsible for standards of quality and service for online programming across the institution. Dr. Bouchey has had the opportunity to lead all aspects of an online campus and programming in her career and spends time each week in deep dialog with an engaged personal learning network discussing the evolving nature of online education. Dr. Bouchey writes and is widely quoted in the academic and popular press; her articles and curriculum vitae can be accessed here: www.drbouchey.com.
Dr. Erin Gratz is the Instruction and Outreach Librarian at Orange Coast College in Southern California. For more than 20 years, Erin has been an academic librarian, instructor, and administrator. She has been active in online education since 2004. Her research interests are in faculty trust and readiness for change; resistance towards online education in higher education, and effective leadership and organizational structures of online education.
Dr. Shelley Kurland is the Dean of Virtual Campus at the County College of Morris in Randolph, New Jersey. She has been an educator since 1999 and involved in distance education since 2003. Shelley’s areas of expertise and interests are in distance education, active learning, faculty learning, and the use of digital technologies with pedagogical considerations. She uses the question, ‘Is this the best for the student?’ as the compass for her professional work. Shelley’s scholarly activities involve active contributions through professional presentations in the areas of teaching and learning in all delivery methods.