Before we started working and teaching remotely at the beginning of the pandemic, our communication practices for technical support still relied on in-person meetings and email. Communication across and within technical units relied on campuswide governance meetings or extensive Slack threads.
The initial scramble to “get something” out to users within 48 hours about transitioning to remote teaching and working led to a plethora of how-tos published by various groups, often with conflicting or incomplete information. Once the initial frenzy calmed down, our diverse groups came together as a strike team to curate the information into a cohesive, comprehensive, and consistent message. These efforts sped up changes and development by providing input from many units and specializations. Interest and respect within the team fostered consensus, and dialogue with the groups represented within the strike team encouraged widespread acceptance of the strike team’s aim: clear and consistent sources of truth for supporting teaching and working remotely.
In this panel session, we’ll share our best practices, lessons learned, and recommendations for how a campuswide IT Communications group can support teaching and working in the future.