All around the world, university campuses have been closed and will remain closed for a while, then reopen and likely close again, then reopen (and repeat for a few iterations), as we transition to a ‘new normal’. The current lockdown and the likelihood of continued social distancing measures for the foreseeable future are putting a lot of pressure on the higher education sector to adapt to ‘online delivery’ in no time and with no proper planning.
This is a massive (almost impossible) task and will require massive investment, whatever dire financial straits higher education institutions have to navigate as a result of the imminent (or current?) economic crisis and Governments’ funding decisions. Without such investment, the sector will not be able to adapt—except in the very few countries where some of these investment were already made. And that investment will have to be channelled through proper (and largely rethought) procurement strategies and processes, which I think require some attention in the very near future.
But, ‘online teaching’ is happening with (almost no) additional investment …
Not really. The fact that the immediate transition into (some sort of) online delivery (of teaching and, in a larger magnitude, meetings) has not (yet) required such massive investment in the higher education context is just a matter of luck. In particular in the case of the UK, with which I am most familiar (and which is likely to be rather similar to most in other developed countries), universities have a completely inadequate IT infrastructure to support working from home and online teaching and research. The situation can only be worse elsewhere. However, the shortcomings of the IT infrastructure are largely hidden behind the private investment in IT infrastructure by the (UK) higher education workforce.
More generally, the entire transition to the online environment is currently unsustainably relying on individual resources and creativity. I half-joked about the challenges of working from home on twitter, but the serious fact is that large proportions of the academic and professional services communities do not have an adequate work space at home or, for that matter, adequate IT equipment. Issues of space and office furniture may well be nigh impossible to fix (except, perhaps, better chairs), but an improvement on the current IT shortcomings will certainly be necessary sooner rather than later.
Right now, I am writing this blog post on my personal computer—from which I have also been lecturing, attending endless meetings and completing some research tasks (to the limited extent my current circumstances allow). My university (desktop) computer is gathering dust in my office. My laptop was bought a few years ago and is giving worrying signs of likely malfunctioning (please, remember to back up your hard disk!). I have no certainty that I will remain able to do my job if my laptop goes. Moreover, my laptop is struggling with the increased demands of advanced videoconferencing software and the larger amounts of information to be uploaded and downloaded from the cloud. It was simply never intended for this intense use and its technical specs are likely insufficient for some software I will likely need to use if all my teaching goes online in a more serious manner for next academic year.
If my laptop goes or at some point proves unfit for purpose, what should I do? I could try to buy another one online from my own pocket and hope it gets delivered soon enough (as dealing with emails on my phone will definitely not do my eyes and hands any favours), but should I? Or is this now the obligation of my employer? I think the latter, as ‘my’ laptop is no longer something I marginally use for work (eg when travelling to conferences) or as a convenient way of time shifting (to try to minimise time in the office as much as possible in search of a better life/work balance), but is mainly dedicated to my personal use. Right now, my laptop is the bit if University IT architecture that keeps me connected and working from home.
My impression is that the same is true for a vast majority of the (UK) higher education workforce, as most members of staff have not been given laptops or other equipment. The unsustainability of the situation creates an impending tidal wave of IT procurement for (UK) universities.
Challenge and opportunity in post COVID-19 IT procurement for HE institutions
As ‘online higher education’ (in whatever form, including blended, flexible and any other labelled models) becomes the ‘new normal’, universities will have to make sure all members of staff have adequate IT equipment (and internet connections, energy supply, etc, but that is a can of worms on its own). This will require all sorts of measures, from moving existing desktop computers to private homes in the shorter term, to heavily investing in a transition to portable IT hardware (probably not the right label) for all staff—including the possibility of emergency deliveries for those situations (and there will be a few) where the existing (privately owned) laptops, routers and other kit stop functioning the day before the most important event (usually a student-facing one, of course).
The challenge will not only be in funding this, which will itself be difficult. The challenge will be in procuring all this IT equipment sustainably. And this challenge comes with a big opportunity for the development of a (more) sustainable IT landscape in the higher education sector (and elsewhere).
The point of departure, I think, should be a reassessment of the technical specs required for adequate working from home activities, depending on the specific activities to be carried out by each member of staff. Some will have extremely demanding requirements (eg if they have to run VR based activities, such as lab replacement work, or have to run heavy duty big data analysis software), whereas others (most of the law academics, eg) will just require basic functionalities for quality videoconferencing, email and cloud storage. The specs should include some leeway to future-proof investments, but should not be such that we are all given flashy top-end laptops with more computing power than we could possibly use.
To my mind, another point of departure should be that the new investment will have to have the smallest possible environmental impact. This means that the strategy should start by reallocating existing IT equipment, continue by acquiring refurbished equipment and, only where nothing else is available, acquire new equipment—all of it having a clear view of life cycle impacts and, in particular, recyclability at the end of expected use life. On the contrary, if all newly required IT equipment was bought new, this could create a significant negative environmental impact in the transition to the ‘online new normal’ of higher education (and other sectors). It must be avoided.
Finally, this also creates an opportunity to undo the shortsighted cuts in IT support that some higher education institutions have been implementing, as well as develop new capacity that could generate teaching and research synergies. Universities are complex institutions and there seems to be certainly a lot to teach and research about how they design, create, revise, adapt, maintain and dispose of their IT infrastructures and equipment. I am sure some engineering departments could make great contributions to the improvement of the system if some tasks where reconsidered and, in particular, brought back from the myriad outsourcing arrangements currently in place.