With the onset of COVID-19, nearly all UTTC students scheduled to graduate in spring of 2020 did so, testifying to the importance of familiarity with the college’s LMS. Alternatively, first-year students struggled, as only 20% successfully completed the spring semester.

United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) experienced many of the same challenges as its sister tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) during the recent pandemic. March 2020 may prove to have been one of the most pivotal times for higher education in recent history. The data on student learning and degree completion is being analyzed now, but there is already every indication that students at TCUs may have been impacted more significantly than students at mainstream institutions.

At the outset of the pandemic, the Higher Learning Commission had already approved UTTC to offer online degree programs. A system for online courses was in place, as UTTC had adopted the Jenzabar learning management system (LMS) 15 years ago because of its capabilities for managing all student and institutional needs through a single platform.

Today, Jenzabar eLearning is used to varying degrees in all UTTC courses. All course sites in eLearning have the course description, faculty contact information and office hours, syllabi, course outcomes and objectives, and other supplemental resources available for students to access. The online courses use the same eLearning platform, with the same information posted, but also include weekly course modules, interactive learning activities and assessments, and discussion forums, as well as other components of a quality online course. One of the deciding factors in UTTC’s decision to use Jenzabar as both the LMS and the platform to deliver online courses was that students would not have to learn two separate platforms for online and campus-based courses. This decision also benefits faculty, as the technology does not become a barrier to teaching or learning.

In spring 2020, as higher education institutions were challenged with transitioning most of their coursework online within a matter of weeks, UTTC students familiar with the Jenzabar LMS were able to transition from campus-based course delivery to online delivery with significantly fewer issues than those who were not familiar with the LMS. There were 62 students scheduled to graduate in May 2020, and 61 of them did so on time after completing their courses that semester as online students. Less than 5% of UTTC’s student body are online students, so this is evidence that campus-based students familiar with the LMS were able to successfully switch to online courses.

There were, of course, challenges that required considerable institutional support from faculty and campus support staff. Approximately 60% of UTTC students reported experiencing food insecurity and 30% reported housing insecurity, but those who were continuing students, and more familiar with the LMS platform because they had been engaging with it for a longer period of time, persevered in their coursework and met their graduation goals despite these environmental issues.

First-year students, however, did not experience this same level of course completion. In addition to the other social and educational challenges that affect first-year students, many expressed frustration with their courses that were now online and attributed this frustration to not being familiar with the LMS. They had been introduced to the basic LMS platform as part of orientation and their first-year experience classes, and shown how to access their grades and financial aid information, but did not have the consecutive semesters of experience engaging with their coursework in the LMS the way the continuing students did. Fewer than 20% of this group completed the spring 2020 semester.

There are two immediate changes UTTC can implement to support students’ use of the LMS and eLearning. The first is an increased emphasis on requiring students to use the LMS, beginning the first weeks of the first semester, as their source of information. To achieve this, all UTTC personnel should be familiar with the LMS and intentionally engage with students in ways that will require them to log into the LMS for the information. The other change is using eLearning for campus-based courses in a similar manner to how it’s currently being used for online courses. For example, an instructor for a campus-based course can offer a quiz on the course eLearning site so students get experience with eLearning and the LMS.

TCUs exemplify models of student-centered education. The pandemic forced all of us to respond to the needs of our students during unprecedented times to make our educational programs stronger. But as with the challenges we have faced before, what we have learned over the past two years will help us emerge even stronger.