Clarity Converts Instructor-Led College Courses into Online Courses on Accelerated Timeline
The Challenge
Transforming in-classroom courses into sophisticated online content in the midst of a crisis
When COVID-19 hit, our client, a community college in Canada with more than 40,000 full- and part-time students, had to move courses from an instructor-led, in-person classroom format to online. Internally, they simply didn’t have the bandwidth to convert all the courses in the time frame required.
They identified 19 courses in the School of Business for online conversion–a process that normally would take 13 weeks – in a mere seven so they would be ready for the summer session. Because of the tight time frame, the stakes were high. There wouldn’t be time to interview consultants who would work on the project. Our client needed a partner who could quickly and accurately assess their situation and be up and running almost overnight.
The Solution
High stakes project requires teamwork and laser-focused expertise
Clarity had worked with the college years ago, and we reached out to the min March 2020 knowing they likely would need rapid course conversion. Upon understanding the depth and breadth of our professional consultant bench; our more than 25 years of expertise in placing elite learning and development professionals in high-demand positions; and our ability to meet the extremely condensed time frame, the college knew we were the right partner.
First, we created a strategy to put together the right team of consultants. We deployed a team of 19 instructional designers, two quality assurance professionals and one program manager. They all had experience building online courses in higher education. Because the college had a large international student population–most of whom had been sent home due to shut down orders and now lived in various time zones–the courses needed to be asynchronous. Once our consultants started the project, however, we ran into a roadblock. Our subject matter experts–the course instructors–were tied up for the first two weeks of our project timeline. Simultaneously, they bumped back the start of their summer session, but we would now have only six weeks to complete the work.
Clarity worked closely with the instructors to convert their courses–which were broken into 14 weeks–into an online format, making them graphically appealing and more succinct. This was challenging, as they were in the throes of finishing their spring semester, with many instructors teaching online for the first time. We also developed training aids for their learning management system (LMS) so the college’s full-time designers could better leverage it in the future.
The Results
Ability to work proactively under pressure makes for ongoing partnership
After seeing the results, our customer was thrilled. We have heard much positive feedback from instructors and department heads that the content was robust, much more visually appealing and digestible. The college remarked that our work was better than courses they’d built independently and through other consultants.
Clarity was a great fit for our client because we were deadline driven; came to them proactively with solutions, not just problems; and served as real partners, with many instructional designers working almost around the clock to meet the aggressive timeline. They were so thrilled that they asked us to help them with about 80 additional courses over the next two years.
