Universities are hiring big consultants & online providers to move them online and cut costs. There's a better way! Don't spend shedloads on consultants, especially where it's not clear that the folks who'll actually do the work have any expertise. Invest in your staff!
1/15

Your staff are dedicated, care deeply about their students and know them, and have done marvels in the last month or two. They may not have known much about online learning before, but they are learning fast. Why burn that goodwill just as times get tough? *Engage* them.
2/15

The future's uncertain. When will lockdowns be lifted? Partially? Reimposed? Nobody knows, nobody can know. What your organisation needs in this world is flexibility and capability in depth. A big-ticket external consultancy will at best help you with a one-off move.
3/15

But what if you have to keep switching on and off and changing plans as swiftly as we just did? That seems extremely likely. You can't buy in that capacity on spec: you have to grow it in your existing staff. Some of them are already experts! Build on that, spread it round.
4/15

Asking for extraordinary commitment at the same time as you have to make cuts is awful. Staff morale (esp in the UK) was low already before this. Draw them in, don't shut them out. Give them real responsibility & they'll rise to the challenge and do great stuff.
5/15

There's a clear quality hierarchy in online learning experiences:

1. No provision
2a. Inexperienced online academic did a rush job
2b. Online learning tech took existing materials and tried to make them work online without engaging the academic
(these two may swap)
6/15

3. Online learning tech worked in partnership with engaged academic
4. Experienced academic worked as part of an established team of expert professionals

You want your students to have a top-quality experience. You *can't get there* if your academics are disengaged. 7/15

If you don't care about quality (in HE? shame on you!), you probably do still care about quantity. Student dropout is almost certain to be a much bigger problem with low-quality online learning than with your existing provision. Bad for students, bad for balance sheets.
8/15

There is so much goodwill in the sector in this crisis, and so much help freely offered from experts in online learning. If you ramp up spending significantly on external consultants and don't engage and invest in your staff, don't expect that to last for you.
9/15

A more personal argument. Strategic plans in these circumstances are often fraught. Rightly: they are high stakes. You'll be worried about negative press attention if they leak, particularly if that puts off applicants in this most extraordinary of recruitment rounds.
10/15

Why not work up a strategic plan you're proud of? Wouldn't you prefer a strategy where your comms planning is about the press release, not a crisis response for when it gets out?

Invest in your staff, trust in your staff, engage them in this great challenge.

11/15

I am an HE consultant. This is not self-denying advice. Consultants - including me! - can play a very valuable role in making this happen. Make sure their role is aimed at growing and developing your staff, not leaving them demoralised, disengaged, and resentful.
12/15

You know that demand for online learning expertise is high now. You can't get years of experience overnight. Big consultancies will take your money, but there's only so many experts available. They're rapidly training up inexperienced people. It's a smart strategy.
13/15

It's also a smart strategy you can use internally, instead. That way *your university* ends up with the valuable experienced staff, not the big consultancy that's taken your money for staff development.
14/15

This is a lot like an outsourcing decision. All the good advice on outsourcing says never to outsource key competencies/core activity. Do you really believe that some online learning is not and will never be central to what your university does?

Invest in your staff!
15/15