Thrown in the Deep End
In March 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic has uprooted and renegotiated the rules of Higher Education. Students and staff from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the globe were forced to continue their teaching and learning in a remote fashion. Whilst stop-gap solutions ensured that teaching could continue in a virtual capacity, students and staff found themselves working long hours and seeing their work, study and family lives seep into one, as the home environment became the hub of everyday life. At Mi:Lab, we believed it was important to document the experience of teaching, working, learning and living during these challenging times.
12 staff members and 21 students agreed to participate in the research. In total, 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted with both staff and students. The ethnographic research method of Photovoice was also used, inviting student and staff contributors to submit photographs of what working off-campus during COVID-19 meant for them. Several prompts and worksheets were also issued, asking participants to contribute photographs of their workspaces with reflections, to better understand their experiences during this time.
Across this research, a nautical theme was recurrent. Students and staff described their COVID-19 experience using terms like “drowning, storms, lifeboats, captains, lost in fog, sinking, not being in the same boat, and sailing into the unknown.” HE could be likened to a huge ship sailed along unsuspectingly in the water. This ship had been sailing for many years and every year, it this ship carried thousands of passengers on a journey. Some say it was a journey of learning, others say it was self-discovery, while critics accused it of being an expensive, inefficient, and ineffective journey. As the ship has been reliably on the water for many years, its leadership had not thought much about major changes, patching up damages and make small improvements as required.
As a storm continued to rage in the form of COVID-19, albeit quelled a little by the hopes of blue skies ahead, the crew and the passengers decided to come together and turn their attention to what might change once the storm had passed. They knew there was much had been learned from. The HE ‘ship’ as we know it was upturned by the surging waves caused by COVID-19. All members of the community were affected in deep, personally redefining ways. To plan for the future of HE, we first need to reflect on the journey its passengers have endured. At Mi:Lab we derived six insights that we believe reflect the experiences endured by students and staff within HEIsthe institution.
As a storm continued to rage in the form of COVID-19, albeit quelled a little by the hopes of blue skies ahead, the crew and the passengers decided to come together and turn their attention to what might change once the storm had passed. They knew much had been learned. All members of the community were affected in deep, personally redefining ways. To plan for the future of HE, we first need to reflect on the journey its passengers have endured. At Mi:Lab we derived six insights that we believe reflect the experiences endured by students and staff within HEIs.
While much of the discussion may tend to be viewed negatively, we believe this metaphor also offers opportunity. 6 actionable insights that have since been framed as design challenges as a catalyst for action within HEI’s. Mi:Lab believe that framing Higher Education as a Design challenge can open up exciting new possibilities. Human-Centred Design is an iterative approach to innovation and problem solving that offers important, accessible and impactful pathways for deeply understanding staff and student needs, enabling better ways of collaborating and co-creating, creatively exploring ideas and ultimately, shaping new models of Higher Education.
Mi:Lab are hosting an online seminar on Wednesday the 28th of July, from 4pm-6pm. We will hear from speakers with a deep understanding and expertise in the area of Design and Higher Education on their experiences applying these ways of working. For more information and to sign up for the event, follow this link:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/redesigning-higher-education-seminar-tickets-163365477541
