Educators need to be quick on their feet

Today is my chance to complain, somewhat privately, about how bureaucracies work. It's never surprising to find that gigantic organizations allow details to fall through the cracks, or that simple human error (even best intentions) can cause trouble. Still, it's annoying.

Today is also the last day of summer in CSU terms, with classes beginning Monday. But the university asks online instructors to "publish" their classes today, allowing students to begin browsing the courses, purchasing textbooks, etc.

Today I learned that the university has decided to buy a site license for LinkedIn Learning, which is a terrific resource for online instructors and a key part of one of the writing courses I am teaching this fall. Sounds great, right? 

But the problem is that the department of journalism and media communication previously paid for a license and the department had a point person who would send out the email invitations to students in selected courses so they could log in. Our point person evidently found out TODAY that this change is happening... and, of course, the details have not yet been worked out.

Hence a quick Announcement on Canvas that more information will be coming... with no clear timeline for resolution.

Look, I favor a university-wide license. It saves the department money and opens up LinkedIn Learning to over 30,000 students. But why the late notice and the start-of-term confusion? Ugh.

The other CSU online course I am teaching requires a connection with quizzes provided by the textbook publisher, but something is not working so students cannot yet access the link. The department coordinator has been scrambling to fix this but couldn't make contact with the Macmillan rep yesterday.

So I posted an Announcement to THAT course warning students that they will need to wait a bit until the proper links are provided.

I am a veteran of schools and districts and universities making decisions on a macro level that cause confusion and panic on the micro level. That doesn't mean I can't whine about it.

The start of a new school year is the sort of deadline that gets things moving, so perhaps all will be well by this time next week and the temporary confusion will be forgotten.

Until the next unexpected and unannounced change.