Jennifer Schaeffer, VPIT and CIO, on the transition to working from home
You might have been wondering about how COVID-19 affected AU as digital university. AU was fortunate to continue allowing learners to complete their studies from home at their own pace but still had to make a number of changes to enable team members to carry out their work from home.
While some team members did work from home already, many went to work every day in offices in Athabasca, Edmonton, and Calgary.
When the pandemic resulted in major disruptions in March 2020, AU responded quickly by closing in-person facilities and shifted team members to be safely working from home. The ability to shift from place-based work to working from home relied heavily on AU’s Information and Technology (IT) team.
In a presentation that Jennifer Schaeffer, Vice President IT and Chief Information Officer, gave to Canada’s National Research and Education Network Summit (NREN) in December, she discusses some of the challenges and disruptions that everyone saw in 2020. She provides some interesting insights on how AU had its own challenges and how it grappled with the adjustments.
The following video is an excerpt from her interview to give you a sense of how AU, and specifically our IT team, navigated and empowered the university to continue supporting team members and learners though some challenging unknowns.
Watch to gain some insight into AU’s response to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
