Higher Education Gets a Crash Course in Online Event Planning
he University of Kentucky’s 2020-21 events calendar is filled like any typical school year’s: The 42nd Annual Kentucky Women Writers Conference welcomed attendees from around the nation. The UK Alumni Association celebrated homecoming. And to commemorate Black History Month, the Martin Luther King Center held its second annual Men of Color Symposium.
There was one difference, but it was a major one: All of these events were held online.
“The big thing is that this university has been around for 156 years, and we did not shut down because of a pandemic that ravaged the world,” says Adam Recktenwald, UK’s executive director of enterprise applications. “We found a way to keep the doors open.”
Over the past year, universities and colleges nationwide have had to get technologically creative to uphold long-standing traditions and activities while adhering to health and safety guidelines made necessary by the COVID-19 crisis.
While some schools have offered small, socially distanced in-person events — campus tours, for example — most mainstay college events, such as commencement, open houses, recruitment and student government activities, have largely been limited to online environments. To ensure these activities run smoothly, university IT departments provide the technology (such as videoconferencing applications and webcams), training and, when needed, IT support.
“Everyone understands why we’re doing it this way, but I think everyone will breathe a sigh of relief once it’s safe for us to gather in person again,” says Katherine Stevenson, University of Louisville’s executive director of enterprise technology services. “Our campus community has pulled together and worked really hard to make the academic year work.”
Indeed, the pandemic has given IT administrators new opportunities to support faculty, staff and students as they try to maintain traditions and events considered intrinsic to the college experience. “They are building new relationships and finding new ways to collaborate,” says Mark McCormack, senior director of analytics and research at EDUCAUSE.
IT Empowers Campus Community to Host Online Events
In Lexington, Ky., UK’s Information Technology Services (ITS) helps users access the technology resources needed to host online events, says Associate CIO Heath Price. By providing that foundation, the IT staff empowers campus departments and organizations to run virtual activities as they see fit, Price says.
The university primarily uses Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and occasionally social media apps such as Facebook and Instagram. The ITS cybersecurity team runs security reviews to ensure the apps used for online events meet cybersecurity requirements, Recktenwald says.
“We set the IT policies and configure core applications to work in a way that’s inherently secure,” he says. “Then we turn it over to them to use.”
While UK reopened campus this year for small hybrid classes on a staggered schedule, most other events and activities remained virtual, with IT staff helping to facilitate online meetings when asked, Price says. Last spring and summer, for example, ITS helped the Office of Enrollment Management with virtual freshman orientation.
Historically, new students and their parents toured the campus, registered for classes, and met with faculty, staff and students. They could walk to an IT desk, where a staff member helped them create an online university account.
When the pandemic struck, he says, UK turned orientation into an interactive online experience using Zoom, with keynote speakers and breakout rooms where students could ask questions.
IT staff joined other university departments in a command center to ensure the virtual orientations went well. If students experienced problems, Recktenwald says, customer service agents were on hand to help. “We made sure the IT staff connected directly with students,” he explains.