The Three Digital Waves of Higher Ed in a Pandemic

This episode of Future youe is brought to you by Cengage. Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. This is Future youe with Jeff Salingo and Michael Horn.

Welcome to Future youe, everyone. I'm Jeff Salingo coming to you today from my home office in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. where I continue to be hunkered down and along with my wife, we're homeschooling our two elementary school girls. I'm joined today by my co host, Michael Horn on a new technology we're trying Streamyard.

Great to be with you, Jeff, and great to be with so many of our listeners, of course. And I'm looking forward to today's conversation as we continue to cover the impact of COVID 19 and the resulting recession, of course, on higher education in America.

Yeah, Michael. Indeed, we're welcoming Fernando Blatchmore, the general manager of US Higher Education and Skills for cengage, one of leads leading digital learning and textbook companies, among other responsibilities. In this role, Fernando oversees Cengage Unlimited, a subscription service for college textbooks and course materials that has received a lot of buzz in higher education circles from Mexico originally, helping transform higher education is really a passion of his and he's had a neat career at cengage, serving as the Chief Product Officer before this role, as well as the chief Strategy Officer. Our conversation today with him is going to focus on a new survey that Cengage conducted surrounding the response and impact of COVID 19 from the perspective of administrators and faculty. And then we're going to get into some of the larger issues that this moment brings to the forefront in higher education. Fernando, it's great to have you on the show. Welcome.

Thanks, Jeff. Great to be with you guys.

So, Fernando, we're going to start with kind of a lightning round here because cengage partnered recently with several organizations, including WECT and apcea, which is the continuing education association in higher education, to survey more than 800 administrators and faculty members at more than 600 institutions about the response to COVID 19. There was a lot of interesting findings from the survey responses, but I wanted to pull out three for your quick reaction. And the first one is among the faculty when they were asked kind of what they're relying on for for delivery of remote education, they talked a lot about the learning management systems they already had and synchronous video like Zoom. So does that tell us that this wasn't the great digital migration that we heard about, but was really about simply moving in person courses online?

Yeah, I think That's a great question, Jeff, and I think context is very helpful here. In early March. So right before COVID hit, less than 50% of institutions had any online or hybrid learning. And I think around 40% of faculty were delivering any type of online or learning. So when Covid hit in essentially two weeks in the end of March, where every school had to move to some sort of remote learning or distance learning, there was very little time for institutions and for faculty. So at Cengage, we normally serve over 100,000 faculty in a year with digital, over 5 million students. In those two weeks alone, we had to set up new courses for faculty for over 10,000 faculty serving over half a million students. So what that tells me is that this first wave, what we saw was people doing the best they could as quickly as they could. So it's not a fundamental digital evolution. It's more of a triage of doing the best they can as quickly as they can to deliver through the semester.

So the other thing that was in there, when you asked administrators what would be helpful, 50% of them said emergency plans from other institutions. And we know clearly institutions didn't have a playbook for this. But does that mean they're really still flying blind, so to speak, even now?

Yeah, I think it's a great question. And in a way, we're all flying blind. We're all trying to figure out how do we get past the first response. I know at Cengage, we had to move 5,000 people to work from home overnight, like many other businesses, and now we're working through what does that mean for the new normal? I think what institutions are doing is relying on their networks that they have, whether it's vendors, partners, other institutions they work with. But there's no clear recipe for best practices. And every institution is a little bit different. And that's what came out in the survey for me.

And then, so one other thing in terms of the three things that really struck me about this was when asked what would be most helpful to online instruction? Access to digital materials ranked second only after general online support. So what does that tell us about kind of the digital muscle of institutions before this crisis? Was it. Was it really robust enough, in your opinion?

I think it's very varied. I think there's a wide spectrum of institutions. What was very surprising for me is talking to presidents and provost of institutions that had very large online programs and very large programs on campus. They were still struggling with the on campus programs. So I think what it tells me is that, yes, there's some gaps in the call it the backbone, the readiness, the faculty training, the learning design. There's some gaps, but also that it is a very complex equation to do very quickly. And this takes a multi stage process with a very clear, deliberate end goal in mind.

That's super helpful, Fernando, and I guess I'd love to actually go one, one level deeper, beyond the lightning round, if you will. As you look at the survey and frankly you've talked to institutions, so you've gone beyond the survey, right. To contextualize what's through those responses. Can you get a little bit more specific about what's working and not working right now in order? First faculty, second institutions writ large, and then third, the students themselves.

I think for all three segments, what worked or what is working is sufficiency. Given the time they had meaning, they found a way to continue to deliver. For many students that means that they could continue to prepare for their lectures, continue to learn. For faculty that they found a way, not always the best way, but they found a way to very quickly move online. And for institutions they found a way to transition in a system that has been historically slow to move. So I think I really commend and when I talk to deans and provosts and faculty, it's admirable the work everybody has done in the ecosystem so quickly. So I think that's what's worked. To be honest, what hasn't worked is the limitations of that first wave. So students are struggling with engagement because the experiences were not built for a full digital learning experience were more quickly put together migrations. So students are struggling with engagement. There's some equity and accessibility issues, of course, that couldn't be solved. Faculty have not been fully trained in many cases. So I think some of those limitations of the first wave are what is showing. And the strongest point of view that we look at the most is the student point of view, because that's the end customer. And students are saying, look, we see that there's some value on digital learning and that there's a lot of promise here, but the current experience we're receiving is non sufficient. So that for me is what is not so much that it's not working, but that will no longer be sufficient going forward.

So Fernando, you've described to us a little bit earlier that we're living kind of in wave one of this crisis in higher ed, which is really this fast pivot this spring to remote education. So does that mean kind of wave two now starts now and kind of this summer as we begin planning for the fall. Okay, so then what should institutions be thinking about in laying the groundwork for right now in order to be better prepared for the fall, which it seems everyone's talking about?

Yeah, for me, wave two started the moment wave one finished, which was the moment schools were starting to deliver distance learning. And now there are many faculty are struggling with how do we do exams, proctoring, et cetera. But the institution needs to be ahead. So the institution is already in wave two, which is putting the groups together of thinking what does that fall? And to be honest, it could be more than that fall. It could be that next January experience looks like. And for me, the principles of design as they think through it that I think of, the first is obviously you have to prepare for it. So I've talked to many institutions and faculty that say we will never again be unprepared for something like this. I think the second one that is very important is that sufficiency of wave one is not sufficiency of wave two. We're starting to see this when students are saying how they choose the decisions they might make in the fall based on the type of schooling they can receive, moving from public schools to states to community colleges, et cetera. So you have to be ready for a different level of sufficiency. I think every institution needs to assume that their competitors and other schools will be ready. So that means that you need to think more about that holistic learning experience, about how does the student receive the different courses in a symmetrical way, how do you check in, how do you notch, et cetera. I think the third thing is a little bit more on the how, but it's very important is what we've seen is that institutions that crave what we call a nerve center, so a central group that is starting to prioritize and think holistically through the decisions and moving very quickly. It usually includes deans or provost, the technology lead, whether it's the CIO or the academic lead, a few key faculty and committee members. The quicker that group comes together and decides what they're going to solve for? Because you can go from 0 to 100 in three months. But it's more how do you systematically address that next wave? And also who do you rely on as your partners, as your vendors, as, as your ecosystem to make sure you're ready? That's what I think schools need to start, are working through and need to get act very fast on so that

actually that focus on sort of the how. And then also your comment about sufficiency. What's Actually sufficient in this moment is very different in wave 2 than wave 1. Ties into the question that I'm curious about, which was there's a big focus obviously in higher ed before this crisis on student success and affordability. And I think it's fair to say that higher ed was beginning to move the needle a bit on student. But outside of the disruptors like Western Governor's University, Southern New Hampshire University, gaining market share, not so much on affordability. That was more of you'd see the occasional tuition reset or the occasional we're keeping tuition flat but not really resetting on affordability. So I'm curious from your perspective as we think about what sufficiency looks like in wave two, and you already alluded to the fact the metrics for what success look like change and frankly what people are willing to pay for probably changes as well. What does this crisis in your opinion to institutional strategies on each of those two issues?

Yeah, I think it's a great point. And I think success and affordability, or cost to value, if you will, is the key equation. And I think you're right that pre Covid we were starting to see movement in the needle on success and more and more people, whether it was corporations, other end users in a way of a skill force students that are ready for work get more involved and success was starting to look better. But affordability hadn't made that significant moves from an institutional perspective. I think there were a lot of moves that were happening for students moving away from a traditional model, call it in a dual enrollment model, call it into nine month programs, one year programs, boot camps, et cetera. But the core higher education model is still prohibitive for many students. And I think the current distance learning, plus the current economic crisis, because let's remember that over 40% of students also work and many of those students now will not have work. I think that will put a pressure to reset a bit the equation and to reset the costs for the students and it'll affect everyone in the ecosystem and be a very, very beneficial reset for the for the ecosystem.

So Fernando, let's talk about cengage specifically here for a minute because campuses were already moving to new models of course materials before this crisis. We know, for example, that textbook crisis had historically really been one of the fastest growing costs in higher ed. And access to materials is correlated to student success. In other words, many students were simply not purchasing materials that they needed in order to take their courses and retain and graduate on time. So with so many institutions now moving so quickly online, what does that mean for faster adoption of course materials? That was a big hurdle on many campuses. Did the fact that we were forced to think differently about digital this spring kind of reduce that as a barrier to change in higher education, that maybe more faculty members now might be more willing to adopt digital course materials?

Yeah, I think there's two points for me and they're very linked. One is the point around affordability and affordability of digital solutions, including textbooks, which for me is a prerequisite for the next level, which is success or quality learning from an affordability perspective. Student spending on digital solutions and textbooks, also their entire spending on learning materials has been coming down on a cost perspective. It now stands around $500 on average for a year, which I think is a good thing because it allows more and more people to have access affordability. I think we're making the right moves and the right progress. But then the question is the quality of those solutions. We've spent obviously many years and a lot of money to make what we think are very high quality digital learning solutions that work very well in the context of a faculty and a student working with each other. So I think this can be an accelerator that's good for faculty and for institutions, both from an affordability and from a quality perspective. Yeah.

And then so just staying on that topic for our last question, because you started alluding to what stays, and frankly it sounds like you're saying affordability actually has started to become a feature of the textbooks. But the question, or sort of the next frontier, is quality for what you're actually paying, or as you said earlier, value. Just looking, zooming back out on the macro level. In your opinion, what's the one or two things from this fast pivot that ends up sticking for the long term in higher ed, specifically around the digital aspect?

I think the way I think of that new normal, or what I call wave three, is that we're going to end up in a hybrid model where the cost needs to come down for students, but also the line between the physical and the digital needs to be much more flexible for every individual student. And I think the institutions that are able to really work through that, and that requires instructional designers, really purposeful approach of how you build those experiences are the ones that are going to differentiate and be able to navigate in the best way that new normal.

That's great. And thanks, Fernando, for joining us during these times of the course and discussing the survey you all conducted at Cengage, but going beyond as well, and what this all means for the future of higher education. Appreciate you being with us.

This episode of Future youe is brought to you by Cengage. Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. As the largest US Based provider of teaching and learning materials for higher education, they offer valuable options at affordable price points. Their industry leading initiatives include Cengage Unlimited, the first of its kind all access digital subscription service

welcome back to Future U. Coming off a good conversation with with Fernando from Cengage. Michael, as you reflect on what Fernando said, what do you think this shift to digital and the faculty responses in that survey that they did with other organizations, what do you think it suggests and what would help kind of more in the future in your opinion?

Yeah, I thought he said something really interesting, which was that contrary to what some pundits have been saying about how much higher education has become digital over the last several years and we've seen this big shift and so forth. Jeff, his line was that the starting position I think was really low. My takeaway is that as you said, we're all flying blind right now. Faculty are really, they don't have the support that they need. And so I think the big shift from my perspective of what would help more in the future is that when we think about digital teaching and learning, we don't think about this as a solo act. Sort of the historical way of viewing the faculty model was that I am the faculty member. I in part wisdom to you. And what I think we've learned about really good online learning is that it takes teams to deliver a comprehensive experience. And so that shift, in my opinion, from one to many, and really a team teaching model, if you will, you know, in terms of instructional design, support of the faculty member and so forth, to me that's a big shift that I think would help a lot more in the future is really in mindset and team structure. I'm curious, frankly, your takeaway as well. But I guess the second question, Jeff, that I'll layer in there as you react to that is that you've also said to me that you think in future pandemics that the fact that there wasn't a strong set of open access online materials that have been kept up to date is just a huge mess in the ecosystem. I'm curious, you've given some thought to it. What would that backbone of OER materials, if you will, look like and how would that help institutions and faculty in the future?

Yeah, Michael, I don't think it's just going to be oer, but I think it will be a combination of digital resources that we're going to see. In fact, you know, we already saw before COVID 19, kind of a proliferation of approaches to acquiring textbooks and course materials.

Right.

So we had the subscription model, and these plans all differ slightly, but in general, offer students kind of day one access to a full set of materials across courses for one price. You know, we mentioned, you know, you know, cengage unlimited for institutions, which was this digital subscription with complete access to all the learning products across, you know, hundreds of courses. There's also inclusive access where, you know, in campus bookstores, working with publishers in institutions, and they provide digital textbooks to all students within individual classes, the cost of which, of course, are folded into tuition. Then we have, of course, open education resources, which is the OER movement, which describes kind of the set of freely adaptable, reusable, and shareable materials that allow instructors kind of the freedom to kind of copy and paste the relevant content to fit their needs. And. And, you know, and we saw a movement in all three of these directions before COVID 19. And I'm starting to realize that this. And, you know, this is one of the questions we talked to Fernando about. One of the issues is that I think coming out of this is that the kind of what I would describe as the digital muscle of these institutions is just going to have to be stronger. Because whether there is an interruption in. In the fall or beyond is now, I think, is one question. But I think beyond that, it's clear to me that students particularly, and now even some faculty members, have gotten really used to using digital materials. And so this idea, and we know that it leads to student success. And so meaning that when students have materials, they're more likely to remain in school and graduate later on. And so to me, that is really kind of the learning that we're coming out of this with is that digital, kind of the digital backbone, the digital muscle, the digital IQ of institutions is going to have to be much higher. And we're not just going to kind of hit the reset button and go to. Back to what we used to have.

Yeah, I think it's a really strong point, Jeff, and I guess it leads me into my last question for you, which is if we zoom out, then. Because that's the textbook business and sort of curriculum and where that goes and so forth, if we zoom out for the broader implications for higher ed, and we ask Fernando, of course, you know, what remains from this fast pivot to remote learning when we get back into not just wave two, but he called then wave three if we zoom out and think about all the different dimensions of what higher ed looks like from your perspective, what are some takeaways or things that stick from this moment?

Well, you know, and this is not unique to, you know, either of our thoughts, and Fernando said it at the end there in terms of hybrid, you know, a hybrid model kind of taking over. And, and that's what I see coming out of this, that, you know, we're, we're obviously residential campuses and face to face education is not going away, but it's clear to me coming out of this and if you talk to students and faculty members, the entire experience wasn't great in all cases, but parts of it were, parts of it were better. And I think that faculty particularly that maybe never experimented with flipped classrooms or hybrid courses, you're going to see a lot more experimentation among those faculty members now. So I think that to me we're not going back to a fully residential campus. We're not going all the way online. I think we're going to meet somewhere in the middle. You know, we're going to continue to have online courses, we're going to continue to have fully face to face courses. But I think we're going to see a lot more movement towards that middle ground around, around hybrid education.

Yeah, that's a good point, I think, and I don't disagree. I think that that movement toward hybrid education makes sense. I will say I was struck by one thing he said which sort of, I guess reinforce something that I've thought but I often don't verbalize, which is he made the point that when he was talking about that affordability really hadn't been driven by the core residential institutions, but it had been driven by the students migrating to alternative programs. Not just the disruptors, frankly, like WGU and Southern New Hampshire, but those entities as well as boot camps, shorter programs, things of that nature. And it did occur to me that in all sectors I think you see that change happens not by the existing or incumbent institutions somehow finding a way to move to a lower cost structure. It does happen when the customers or students in this case, which slightly different I think from customers, they migrate, if you will, to the disruptors that have that lower cost structure. And that's how affordability is driven. And so sometimes I wonder, even in a move to hybrid, I think you might see a slowdown in the increase of higher ed. But I don't think we should expect a dramatic reduction. It's more as the disruptors and these shorter form programs and so forth gain share that's where I think we'll look back in a generation. Frankly, I think it's going to continue to take a while for affordability writ large in the quote unquote system, if you will.

Jeff well, Michael, that's a wrap for today. So it's been great to see you on Streamyard today. And thanks so much for joining us on this episode of Future you. And thanks to Fernando Bletchmore from Cengage for joining us. We're going to be back with more episodes uncovering the different dimensions of this crisis in the coming weeks and its impact on the future of higher education. So until then, be safe and stay strong. Hey folks, Michael Horn here.

Hope you enjoyed the latest episode of Future youe. And just a reminder to please subscribe, subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform and if you like the podcast, rate us so that others can find us and find out about the good conversations that we're having here. As always, thanks so much for listening.