Lots of snow this week, however, I didn’t see much mention of university closures compared to say fifteen years ago when we had some really bad snow.
Back in February 2009 we had the worst snow for twenty years. Many universities and colleges closed, most publishing notices about the closure to their websites.
At the time myself and few others recorded a podcast about the role that learning technologies and communication tools can have in supporting colleges and schools that get closed because of the snow.
I remember discussing the issue with colleagues at the time once the snow had melted that we as a college did not make much more use of our VLE and other online platforms during the time we were closed. The result of the discussion was that closing for three days every twenty years was not something we really needed to spend resources and time planning for. There is a point, when there is an “out of the ordinary” event, contingency planning probably isn’t required in any great depth. Much easier just to deal with the problems resulting from the closure than try and plan just in case (which at the time) for a remote chance of closing.
However then in January 2010… the snow came back, this time the worse snow for forty years! Once more lots of universities, colleges, and schools closed. I discussed this at the time in my blog post on snow. My main point was:
Yes, snow makes it dangerous to travel, but with the internet and mobile technologies, does it mean that learners need to stop learning just because the decision is taken to close the physical location? So what if this snow is unprecedented? What if we are now not going to have bad snow for another twenty years?
My next point in the post was this.
Closures happen a lot, time to start thinking about how an educational institution can make best use of the fantastic tools that are available to it for learning. Though the first thing to do will be to change the culture. It’s not just about contingency planning; it’s about changing the way people work when there isn’t snow and changing the way people think when there is.
It was never about the snow; it was about the disruption.
In 2010 I spoke at the Plymouth e-learning conference, I chaired a debate about closing the physical campus in times of crisis and disruption. I wrote about this at the time in this blog post.
Even if it doesn’t snow really badly next year, other things may happen that result in the physical closure of the educational institution. It could be floods, high winds (remember 1987), flu or similar viral infections, transport strikes, fuel crisis, anything…
Of course in 2020 we had the global covid pandemic, and disruption was taken to an unprecedented level, which meant as a sector, we had to respond quickly and effectively. There was a massive emergency response and the sector moved everthing online and people stayed at home.
So this week we’ve had some snow, but I suspect the disruption is still there, but the response from the sector will be influenced by that covid experience, to the point where the disruption can be minimised.
Is today a snow day? No it’s just a day when it snowed.
