Getting ReDI for the #newnormal
Something that defines ReDI School in all its branches is that no semester is ever the same as the previous one. ReDI School is always changing — this is our “normal”. The ReDI team, teachers and learners contribute to the development of new formats, programs and strategies each semester, and keep the school iterating as a way to adjust to the changing needs of our community. This is what we are used to, and this is what has guided our approach towards the COVID-19 situation.
Structured change
When the pandemic hit, ReDI (like most schools, or social organisations) was faced with two important challenges: how to keep the ReDI community and team safe and connected, and how to ensure that the educational journeys of our learners were not disrupted.
The solution to these challenges needed a targeted approach that included understanding the needs of our very different programs and, most importantly, our learners. In order to find solutions to this complex challenge, we implemented a 3-tiered approach to guide each team into finding the best solution:
1) Clear internal decision making process
Given the diversity of the ReDI community we knew we would need to provide various complex solutions focusing on developing a clear, transparent and quick decision-making process that the different teams across cities and locations can rely on in order to design and implement the most relevant solutions
The decision making process has only three steps:
- Targeted solutions: Each program assesses the situation of their learners and courses, drafts a document with various solutions to different COVID-19 scenarios, and submits it;
- Check for compliance with existing hygiene practices: The Local Head reviews that proposal to ensure it is compliant with existing regulations/measures/suggestions from the local authorities regarding COVID-19 and within the overall direction of the school;
- Check for alignment with ReDI values: After the Local Head’s approval, the solution has to be approved by the ReDI Direction, as a way to ensure that each solution is aligned with ReDI’s values (caring, playful, helpful, reliable) and priorities.
This process has made it easy to adjust to changes in the situation in a clear, quick and transparent way while preserving each program’s ownership of the measures implemented.
2) Space hygiene concept
The Local Heads of each location are appointed as a Task-force to closely follow the official information and the developments regarding the COVID-19 situation and to keep their respective schools compliant with the hygienic measures. Special emphasis is placed on the fact that only reliable and official sources of information are used for decision making purposes, and that locally or regionally-enforced measures are consistently applied in the school.
Existing guidelines coming from official and reliable sources are taken into account as guidance for the development of each city’s hygiene concept.
3) Community at the center
The last but most important component of the strategy is to regularly check with the community to understand what their learning/teaching preferences are in this new context, but also to understand what might be some of their challenges.
Firstly, teachers and learners have been consulted about their preferences in the course format: would they rather stay fully online, have a blended learning option, or stay offline (if allowed) while respecting hygiene measures? The feedback has been analysed on a course-by-course basis in order to find the specific arrangements that work for each course.
Secondly, the needs of the learners have been assessed as a way to ensure that no one is left behind during a potential transition into online courses. Data regarding students’ access to internet at home has been consistently gathered across programs and, to those who do not have access to internet, SIM cards with data and surf sticks have been provided through the Vodafone Foundation. Alternatively, the school has remained open (upon request) for students to come and use the internet in order to be able to follow the class online.
Thirdly, feedback has been regularly gathered from learners and teachers during and after the semester in order to identify areas where improvement is needed, and to share best practices.
What does the “new” normal look like for us?
As a result of the different needs of each of our programs, the “new” normal is very different for each of our community members, or for the ReDI team mates. A different approach has been developed for each user, program and location, that takes into account the specific needs of everyone and the best ways to keep them safe but connected.
The team
The ReDI team in all its locations (Berlin, Copenhagen, Munich and NRW) are working remotely by default since the declaration of the pandemic in March 2020. The ReDI offices are still open and can be accessed by team members when necessary, always respecting the maximum capacity that has been established for every room. Everyone entering the office is required to wear a mask, follow a disinfection protocol of his/her/their working space, ventilate every hour, and log oneself in to the record of the office visitors. At the moment, CO2 monitors are in the process of being installed in the Berlin office in order to keep better track of the quality of the air indoors. All team meetings have been moved online, and each ReDI team has been assigned a day of the week to work from the office.
In addition to this, regular online live trainings have been organised for the ReDI teammates of all different locations, as a way to create touch points between colleagues, continue their personal development and stay connected.
The ReDI courses
When redesigning the educational programs, the aim has always been to keep our community safe and connected while causing the least possible disruption to the learning journeys of each one of our students. However, with such a diverse community of learners, this has not been without challenges!
The planning of the courses
Since the planning phase, we knew that the different program would have to be designed differently this semester, to be able to rapidly adjust to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Europe. Therefore, each location applied the following guiding principles during the planning of the semester:
- Always have an online backup plan
- Planning staggered start, end and break times of the courses taking place in the same venue
- Being mindful of space capacity for student admission
- Integrating briefing about hygiene measures into the program
- Ensuring attendance tracking
- Ensuring compliance of the hygiene rules by participants
- Gathering the needs of the students in terms of internet access
- Ensuring training of volunteers/teachers in online-facilitation methods
In addition to this, the school put an additional emphasis on the provision of online tools for the development of online courses, after testing several options during the course of the previous semester. Extra space with bigger rooms was also sought in order to be able to accommodate the number of students while keeping safety distance. In Berlin, the in-person courses have been kindly hosted by CODE University of Applied Sciences in their new Berlin campus.
As part of the planning of the courses, and as a way to deal with the uncertainty around the COVID-19 situation, each team has designed different learning scenarios to be applied according to the development of the COVID-19 situation in each location. In order to regulate the application of such scenarios, each location is using the monitoring mechanisms provided by the local authorities, such as:
- Corona Lagebericht (or Corona traffic light) in Berlin: https://www.berlin.de/corona/lagebericht/
- Corona Lagebericht in München: https://www.muenchen.de/aktuell/2020-03/coronavirus-muenchen-infektion-aktueller-stand.html
The Digital Career Program
Based on the criteria set above, and the preferences of the communities in each location, the Digital Career Program has taken a blended learning approach, with the option to go fully online according to the COVID-19 situation.
In Berlin and Munich the courses are running in a blended learning approach under strict hygienic conditions when taking place offline, including wearing masks during the sessions, keeping the safety distance at all times and participating online in case of any disease symptom. One in-person class takes place every two weeks at the ReDI offices in Munich, and every week at the ReDI locations in Berlin — all other class sessions are held online. Offline sessions have been kept as a means to offer a space for learners and teachers to meet each other in person, to enable them to fix (technical) issues personally and to create a strong, connected community. This format applies as long as the situation in Berlin and Munich is not considered critical (“red traffic light” in Berlin or Munich).
However, in cases where the COVID19 developments reach a higher level of severity in these locations — as it is the case at the moment, the learning scenarios will also change.
In both locations, courses are switched online as long as the traffic light system stays in “red”, with the exception of some courses that have explicitly asked to remain blended in order to avoid disruption. In their case, higher hygiene measures are implemented, such as the regular submission of a health-check form where participants are expected to submit information regarding their current health status and/or their contacts with confirmed cases of COVID-19. The blended format will be resumed as soon as the traffic light stays consistently “green” (esp. the R-value light) and after consultation with teachers and learners. In the NRW School, the courses are taking place fully online since the outset of the semester.
The Digital Women Program and the Youth Program
The Digital Women and Digital Youth Programs, whose focus is mainly on Digital Literacy competencies, have taken similar approaches to cope with the situation.
The Digital Women Program and Digital Youth Program were planned mainly on an offline basis as long as the COVID-19 situation was not critical. The choice of offline sessions responds to the fact that the majority of the learners in this program are still getting started with the use of laptops and digital tools, and including online learning at this stage could create an additional layer of complexity to their learning. This notwithstanding, the most advanced digital literacy courses started to include some blended learning options this semester, combining both online and offline lessons.
However in the event where the COVID-19 situation becomes critical, both programs will implement a strategy to progressively switch to an online mode — this is the stage where they find themselves today. Once the decision is made to go online, they will take 2 weeks to complete the following steps before switching online:
- 2-weeks of in-person lessons on the use of video-conferencing tools with the students,
- Ensuring internet access for the students (by providing them with SIM cards and surfsticks),
- Training teachers on online tools,
- Creating structures for remote technical troubleshooting,
- Creating structures for in-person study support (“Nachhilfe) in the ReDI office, under request.
Students with no or limited connection to the internet at home are offered the possibility to come to the ReDI space to follow the online classes, always following strict hygiene measures.
The Kids Program
The Kids Programs in Berlin and Duisburg are strictly following the same regulations as schools in their respective regions. Regarding the Kids courses taking place in ReDI locations, their implementation will be subject to the same hygienic conditions as the rest of the courses (mask at all times, regular hand-washing, space disinfection, regular ventilation, students seated at 1.5m from each other), and training on online tools is being provided in preparation for a potential lockdown. Consultations have been carried out with the children’s families to assess what are their preferences regarding the format of the courses in the current context.
The career support program
After a successful experience last semester, the Career Support programs in Berlin, Munich and NRW have been planned entirely online during this semester. Activities such as career counseling, company visits and soft-skills workshops are provided digitally through video conferencing tools, and mentoring is recommended to take place online too. Similarly, bigger career-related events are also taking place online, such as the HR Summit or the Job Fair.
Going online has also allowed for a closer collaboration between the different ReDI branches, which are now joining efforts to design virtual workshops and events that can also be extended to students in other branches. As a way of example, the Soft Skills online workshops will now be offered to students in Berlin, Munich and NRW at the same time, and the HR Summit will be planned jointly by these three locations this semester.
So…what now?
The current scenario is definitely far from what we would have hoped (or expected) some months ago, but it has also made us stronger as an organisation: it has not only opened doors for the different ReDI hubs to collaborate closer, but it has also pushed us to get closer to our community, to understand their concerns and their needs and, most importantly, to check in with each other. Along this journey, we have also gathered some interesting learnings:
- Community first: Assessing the needs, concerns and preferences of the community is a necessary step before embarking into a completely new format;
- There is no one-fit-all solution: but each of them has to be guided by the same principles and values;
- Always have one (or 10) backup plan: we have become masters in planning for many different scenarios in such an uncertain environment, and to have many video-conferencing tools ready in case one fails :);
- Online is not bad—only inequality: once the main initial barriers are removed (i.e. lack access to internet connection) and learners and teachers are trained into how to handle the digital tools, online has a lot of potential for developing skills such as self-learning or collaboration;
- Staying connected is almost as important as staying safe — keeping the heartbeat of the community alive in these times can have a great impact in the times of social distancing;
- Who said serious topics can not be dealt with through playfulness?
The “new” normal is certainly “not-so-new” for the ReDI community: we are always changing, and we will continue to do so in a playful, helpful, reliable and caring way. Are you ReDI?
#redicares #reditostaysafe #rediberlin #redimunich #redinrw
