Library and information services' reflections on emergency remote support and crisis-driven innovations during pandemic conditions

Crisis-driven innovation is needed to manage a scarcity in resources. The recent COVID-19 crisis exacerbated the prevailing digital exclusion in the education sector in particular. Sudden changes in otherwise stable higher education environments necessitated immediate and decisive innovation, particularly where education support services were concerned. This study reports on an academic library and information service's reflections on emergency strategies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was conceptualised through the lenses of existing digital exclusion frameworks and information poverty frameworks. The findings from the qualitative data gathered via focus group interviews emphasise the importance of emergency remote library and information services. The pandemic conditions and sudden remote service delivery model highlighted the prevailing socio-economic and socio-technical inequalities and exclusions among students. The value of the study lies in the reflections made on the institution-wide crisis-driven innovation strategy implemented, and the realisation that library and information services must offer active academic support. The study offers a library and information services model to prepare for future eventualities. © The Author(s) 2023.

Emergency remote learning in the times of covid: A higher education innovation strategy

Innovation in a time of crisis is not a new concept. Natural disasters and pandemics through the ages have continued to necessitate emergency adjustments on many levels, including education. Globally, the outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the unexpected and wide-spread disruption of society, and in higher education. These challenges call for crisis innovation measures. The Covid-19 pandemic has forced education providers to revert to a pandemic pedagogy as a philosophy underpinning their teaching and learning strategies. The private higher education institution (PHEI) in this study has a distributed federal model, offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Education, Law, Commerce, Engineering, Social Sciences and Humanities across 24 campuses. It has nearly 45 000 students in South Africa. The compulsory rolling out of the learning management system (LMS) used by the PHEI understudy across all programmes in 2014 enabled the PHEI to adapt to an emergency remote teaching model. This was done by expanding online synchronous and asynchronous learning to the rest of the programmes by employing a crisis-driven innovation strategy. This extended the blended learning approach. The emergency innovation strategy the PHEI adopted responded to this closure by adapting its existing eLearning strategy into an emergency remote teaching strategy (ERTS). This article reports on the case of a PHEI on the approach followed to adjust to this disruptive change in terms of lecturer preparation. Two important factors stood out: firstly, the need to determine the preparedness of lecturers and eTutors to teach online and remotely only;and, secondly, reaching out to students and reassuring them that their education will continue. This paper reports on the first construct. © 2020 Academic Conferences Limited. All rights reserved.