UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
BRICE BIBLE
TITLE : VPCIO COMPANY : UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO
INDUSTRY : HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
LOCATION : BUFFALO , NY , USA but to project what those needs are going to be in three to five years ,” says Bible . A pandemic was , of course , never a core focus of that planning , but UB ’ s strength as a “ multidimensional ” learning institute by design gave it a strong foundation from which to react .
Bible considers the simple matter of maintaining lines of communication between students and faculty : “ They needed simple , robust , synchronous video capability for their classes .” But a one-size fits all approach did not work . Zoom was not ideal
EXECUTIVE BIO
“ We have what we call the Tech
Squad , a student service out of our organisation . A student can go on the website and pick a time and we will show up at their room wherever they live and help them with the technology . We don ' t go into physical rooms currently , we made that virtual so students still could go and say , ‘ Look , I need some help , and I ' m free between three and four . I want that slot .’ And so we virtualised the tech squad so that students could still get that one-on-one help .
“ In the one-on-one process used back before COVID , we would ‘ storm through the dorms ’ at the beginning of the semester - all 4,000 dorm rooms - and see students as they moved in and offer assistance . We could do that physically before , but now we can ’ t . So we flipped it so that we now do it virtually and offer that same assistance . I think it was very helpful . This is just another way that we ' ve tried to retain the look and feel of campus using the technologies we have at our disposal , so the students still felt like they were a part of something bigger .”
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