How did Covid impact IT in higher-ed?

Question

Answer

I don't think our business really knew how much they depended upon us and how much value we really added until we had to do what we did back in March. We took a hundred-year-old institution and digitally transformed it in about a business week (that's a little oversell, but it's not entirely untrue). We had a small footprint of students (Fully Employed MBA's, Executive MBA's) who were taking classes in a hybrid format and employees that were working remotely, but if the pandemic hadn't hit, there would've been no incentive or impetus to change how we do business. What we found out was kind of fascinating. It's opened some doors while it's closed others.

One of my proudest moments was when Zoom went out for a couple hours on a Monday. It was out for a couple hours, and my business actually said, "Hey, wait a minute. We're using Zoom for teaching. What happens if we can't use Zoom? What are we going to do?", and I'm like, "Oh, this is great. This is Business Continuity 101. Thank you! I was waiting for somebody to get there.” Then they would say, “Can we use teams? How do we set up teams? Can we test that?" and I’m like "Wait, you want to do a tabletop? Really? Okay, cool!" It's all these great check marks along the way, because they're thinking this way now, and that's great for us.

The narrative has entirely shifted, and in some cases we got lucky, or we were able to predict some things, but in many cases we already had the technology, just nobody wanted to, was prepared to, or thought they needed to use it.

Answer

In the academic medicine community, COVID introduce several major security issues: increased hacking activity from Russian & Chinese hackers, data security issues for COVID research and increased attack vectors vis phishing emails directed specifically at COVID research staff.

Answer

Since so much of high-ed is now online, they are a major target.

See: Underground Reveals Popularity of Cyberattacks on Schools

https://intel.cybersixgill.com/click.track?CID=434827&AFID=434290&ADID=2451052&SID=

How did Covid impact IT in higher-ed?

Content you might like

What's your favorite way to communicate when using a messaging service?

Which leadership style do you believe is most effective in your organization?

What are some ideas to keep up team morale remotely? Are there specific or structured adjustments you've made to counteract burnout/keep up productivity and mental health?

What is the best work travel advice you’ve ever been given?

How do you keep a team motivated in absence of leadership?