Technology vs. H1N1

Flu coverage in the media has gone from reporting on every new case to focusing on the debate over the vaccine. But college and university health centers are still dealing with sick students and preventing the virus from spreading further. Many are realizing digital thermometers aren’t the only technology at their disposal for coping with the situation.

“We hope it hits a level where cases fall off,” says Bruce Wright, executive director for health and counseling services Washington State University, which has had the highest reported number of infections. “I anticipate we’ll continue to see cases during the semester.”

At most higher ed institutions, faculty are being encouraged to be lenient when students are ill, not require doctor’s notes for absences, and make arrangements for students to catch up. WSU leaders are among those planning to leverage the campus’s existing lecture capture technology while the flu runs its course.

“Using Mediasite to capture lectures is a prominent part of our contingency plan, among a number of other things,” says Saleh Elgaidi, director of IT services for academics and research at WSU Spokane. “We are working with faculty to build an archive of rich classroom experiences that we can extend to students who become ill or if we have an outbreak and there is mandated social distancing.”

“The university also has the technology to facilitate lecture capture from faculty homes, if needed, using a combination of Mediasite and desktop videoconferencing tools,” says Tammy Kramer, Sonic Foundry’s public relations manager.

In addition to campus-wide programs, Kramer is aware of a pregnant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Rock County who plans on switching to a distance learning model if the campus infection rate reaches 20 percent, or if she goes into early labor.

Blackboard is also seeing college and university leaders prepping their systems so education can continue in the event campus has to close. Many campuses are updating the pandemic plans they developed in 2005 for the H5N1 (avian) virus. In response to that virus, the Nanyang Technology University in Singapore instituted an “E-Learning Week” during which parts of the physical campus close, allowing faculty and students to practice working entirely in the Blackboard system.

Fortunately, the majority of H1N1 cases presenting on American college campuses have been relatively mild. Although hundreds of students have become ill with the H1N1 virus at the University of Georgia, the numbers are comparable to what they usually see from the seasonal flu in February, says Liz Rachun, health communications coordinator. As on many campuses, UGA is encouraging everyone on camps to get the seasonal flu vaccine. That message, as well as tips for staying healthy, are being distributed through every medium possible, including e-mail, posters, and the campus website. “It’s all you can do right now,” Rachun says.

Last year the Housing Division at University of Virginia implemented an internal listserv to track ill students. Resident Assistants populate the type of illness and location of the student (although his or her name is kept private) so residence life staff can arrange additional disinfection and protection measures. University administrators are running a successful seasonal flu vaccination program with over 50 percent of the workforce receiving shots between Sept. 14 and Oct. 2.

Along with e-mail and websites, don’t overlook your emergency communication network for distributing timely information, suggests Bill Besse, executive director of consulting & investigations at Andrews International, a risk management company that works with higher ed. Occasional use for non-emergency messages helps acclimate campus constituents to using the system and makes your investment in the technology more cost effective, he says.

“A variety of communications methods should be tested and implemented so that there are backups if one method fails or is overloaded during a surge,” he says.

Schools should use “message maps” to help avoid message fatigue, says Marc Ladin, vice president of global marketing at Everbridge, an emergency notification provider. “Created prior to emergency situations, message maps are clear, concise messages that simplify complex concepts and speed communication during an emergency,” he explains. The maps also help target messages to the appropriate audience.