Blog Readings – PhilOnEdTech

In my post I noted that “given the scale and timeframe of the transition, I think it’s actually quite remarkable how few problems we have seen.” While I still feel that is true – overall the LMS market has responded quite well to the crisis – we now have what I believe is the worst Blackboard Learn LMS performance problems in years. Fairfax County Public Schools (K-12) in Virginia, with its roughly 189,000 students, experienced such significant performance issues with Learn that they had to shut down their Virtual instruction for a period of days, and as of the end of Monday this week, they are moving all virtual work off of the Blackboard LMS.

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In a post three weeks ago, I described the massive increase in usage of LMS systems experienced as part of the COVID-based transition to virtual instruction. As of April 1, Blackboard reported LMS usage increases of 400% for the Learn LMS and 3600% for Collaborate Virtual Classroom (synchronous video).

In my post I noted that “given the scale and timeframe of the transition, I think it’s actually quite remarkable how few problems we have seen.” While I still feel that is true – overall the LMS market has responded quite well to the crisis – we now have what I believe is the worst Blackboard Learn LMS performance problems in years. Fairfax County Public Schools (K-12) in Virginia, with its roughly 189,000 students, experienced such significant performance issues with Learn that they had to shut down their Virtual instruction for a period of days, and as of the end of Monday this week, they are moving all virtual work off of the Blackboard LMS.

What Happened

As reported by WTOP News:

Leaders in Virginia’s largest school system — Fairfax County Public Schools — are apologizing and promising things will be better when students resume distance learning on Monday.During a virtual school board meeting that focused on the mishaps and glitches in the distance learning experience, representatives from Blackboard, the system the county uses for online and distance learning, also repeatedly apologized for the platform’s performance, but told board members the school system hadn’t updated the software that runs the virtual system in two years.The issues led the county to cancel online instruction for the rest of the week to get things back in order.FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand told WTOP that he wanted to apologize to parents and students for the mishaps.

The problems started early last week (April 13) with integration problems with the authorization (sign-in) system that were resolved by FCPS staff, but on Wednesday they started experiencing load issues – where the LMS could not handle the number of concurrent users and was unresponsive, or slow enough to be unusable. The problem was identified, but FCPS and Blackboard decided that they needed time to ensure the problems were fixed and tested, due to heavy customizations of the system made over the past two decades. This decision led to the cancellation of classes for Thursday and Friday of last week.

According to Blackboard representatives, they worked through the weekend testing and confirming the fix. Unfortunately,

The big news of the week is a report from NPR that Cal State University Fullerton is the first large university to plan the Fall 2020 term virtually – online, remote, at-a-distance, whatever your language. This report was based on a virtual town hall by CSU Fullerton executives.This news was also reported by the Chronicle and by the Orange County Register. Unfortunately, that news is incorrect. CSU Fullerton is in a planning stage, and the exec team assumes that they will have to start virtually in the fall, but there has been no decision and no announcement. Just sloppy language in the town hall and sloppy reporting.

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I questioned in that post if we were getting the full story, arguing that it was not in HotChalk’s interest to refuse to help Concordia stay open and that the enrollment of Concordia had stabilized and was even rising over the past two years. This was not as simple as cratering enrollment leads to closure.This weekend came news that HotChalk is suing Concordia and its parent operation, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, for $302 million, claiming that the company was defrauded. More on that news after some unfinished business.

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Kevin Kelly: “Today we’re still in an academic recovery mode – using precious fuel to point our online modules toward a safe landing. However, we do not have the time to wait to revise our planning for our course launch in the fall – Phase 3 of Phil Hill’s timeline of the Higher Ed Response to COVID-19. Our window to finish the planning for Phase 3 really ends in the second half of May.”

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“We are now facing the reality that of the choices being considered for most institutions, the unlikeliest scenario for higher education in North America is one of offering fully face-to-face programs. There will be some exceptions, but mostly we will see a mix of delays, college closures, fully-online programs, and hybrid offerings that mix limited in-person meetings with significant online activities.”

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“We hope this new set of resources will be useful and make it easier for people to access and use our graphics. Head on over to the Free Resources page, and let us know any feedback you have.”

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Kevin Kelly: “In my previous post I described this period as a phase transition, which some call the “edge of chaos.” As we navigate the edge of chaos, we can and should plan for multiple scenarios in the fall–what Phil called Phase 3 of “4 Phases of Higher Ed Response” in his revised higher ed outlook post (see Phil’s chart below).”

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Kevin Kelly: “I’ve been wondering if another horrific and unwanted situation – COVID-19 – provides a similar opportunity to make higher education more adaptive. Given the amazing spirit of collaboration that we’ve all demonstrated lately, I also hope that we can make higher ed more equitable while we’re at it. “

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Evie Cummings: “How will we help our students persist in a completely new model? A model that draws on faculty creativity, puts students first, and provides much more flexibility and staggered engagement than even face-to-face. Wise, creative minds across higher education need to be working on THAT challenge. The availability of pedagogically strong, yet flexible, hybrid models for college, in general, have been long overdue. Throw out the usual rules, be student-centric, and get creative. We have it in us.”

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“What I would describe is that as early as late March, two out of five US college presidents were already considering a scenario where a return of most in-person classes might not be feasible for the Fall 2020 term. It is likely that this number is even higher today, perhaps with most presidents considering remote learning or online education options for their institutions in the fall.”

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