天美传媒

On February 28, the day that 天美传媒 formed its academic committee to prepare to move classes online, there were 34 confirmed coronavirus cases in Spain.

On March 12, the school announced the temporary closures of its Barcelona and Madrid campuses as the outbreak, now officially recognized as a pandemic, spread with disconcerting speed beyond the initial epicenter in China and throughout Europe.

By then, 2,950 coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Spain.聽

Students, faculty members and employees would be studying, teaching and working from home as governments scrambled to contain the crisis.

That two-week period laid the groundwork for a move to online learning now encompassing all , (MiM) and program courses for a still-uncertain period.

The Unlikeliest Scenario

滨贰厂贰鈥檚 transition to online learning was as necessary as it was unexpected.聽

鈥�Nobody really believed this would ever happen,鈥� said Sandra Sieber, a professor in the Information Systems Department and a member of the Covid Academic Committee.聽

She refers to the fourth and final scenario initially laid out by the committee as it pondered various potential balances of on- and off-campus activity during the pandemic. Under the first scenario, a half dozen students would need to connect remotely; the second envisioned many more than that online; the third imagined class if the professor were quarantined; and the fourth, the most extreme, the closing of campus.

鈥淕iven our love for the campus, and the fine-tuning of the experience inside the classrooms we love so much, the fourth scenario, of all activity going online, seemed distant,鈥� said Sieber.聽

As the health crisis worsened, committee members realized that the fourth scenario would become a reality. The committee faced the fluid situation with 鈥渃onfidence and bravery,鈥� said Sieber. It also drew on 滨贰厂贰鈥檚 existing online learning resources, especially its WebEx platform capabilities.

But to meet the urgent widespread demand of the unprecedented situation facing 天美传媒, the planning committee complemented WebEx solutions with those offered by Zoom, another online learning platform the school was less familiar with.

In short order, 天美传媒 drew up and continued to refine training sessions and guidelines for students and for professors, who would each be working with a technician and a coordinator to ensure the smoothest transition possible to digital coursework.

Setbacks and Persistence

鈥淣ot all programs reacted to the response in the same way,鈥� said Sieber. 鈥淲ith the millennials [in the MBA program] it was a given. But there was a degree of pushback from some 辫补谤迟颈肠颈辫补苍迟蝉.鈥�

鈥淭he MBA students are really grateful for 滨贰厂贰鈥檚 quick action in moving to online sessions, even before the official decree of confinement,鈥� said Program Manager Esther Curpi谩n.

She added that with many students back in their home countries, time zone differences have produced certain complications. But the temporary solution is going well.聽

Still, the committee was undeterred in finding as unified a solution as possible, and doing so amidst a crisis affecting 天美传媒 community members personally as well as professionally.

鈥淚t鈥檚 our duty to care about what鈥檚 going on in the world,鈥� said Sieber. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 also our duty to care about our students and participants. Finding that equilibrium was hard.鈥�

Lessons Learned

The experience of this rapid digitalization has left committee members with some key learnings of their own.

• 鈥婣pproach crisis management with an open mind.聽It鈥檚 important to recognize that you won鈥檛 have solutions to all the problems that arise. External collaborations were critical to 滨贰厂贰鈥檚 coronavirus response by providing the schools with tools and abilities that it would have lacked otherwise.

• Team work is fundamental to overcoming any crisis.聽This is perhaps the most important, and also least surprising, takeaway. Teamwork should always revolve around patience with and respect for uncertainty. 鈥淭his situation required a longer and more profound interruption that we鈥檇 have liked,鈥� said Sieber. 鈥淏ut we鈥檙e prepared for what鈥檚 to come. And I can confidently say we鈥檒l emerge from this crisis more united than when we entered it.鈥�

• Balance聽stringency and flexibility. In crisis management, a central question arises of when to begin and when to disband the teams organizing a response. In other words, when does the acute stage of a crisis, and the strict attention to specialized guidelines it requires, give way to a new normality?

On Sunday, March 15, the Covid Academic Committee was disbanded, to allow individual programs to make their own decisions and put individual preparations in place. The switch showed that agility in marking and moving between successive faces of crisis management is essential.

Find 滨贰厂贰鈥檚 open access coronavirus resources and content.