{"id":8996,"date":"2025-09-02T08:00:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T13:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/?p=8996"},"modified":"2025-09-02T15:59:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T20:59:22","slug":"collaborating-for-student-success-how-lsu-shreveport-is-creating-flexible-learning-environments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/collaborating-for-student-success-how-lsu-shreveport-is-creating-flexible-learning-environments\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaborating for Student Success: How LSU Shreveport Is Creating Flexible Learning Environments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Floods. Tornadoes. Ice storms. A Snowpocalypse. It would be easy to think extreme weather events are less of an issue for a university like Louisiana State University Shreveport (LSU Shreveport), where nearly 80 percent of the students are enrolled online.<\/p>\n

But Helen Wise, Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at LSU Shreveport, remembers the day 10 years ago when a power outage on campus knocked out the ability for anyone to access the main servers \u2014 on or off campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant no learning management system and no email communication between faculty and students,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had to physically carry computers off campus to get power to extract information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that catastrophic power outage, LSU Shreveport has grown from 4,400 to 11,000 students \u2014 largely due to its success in graduate online education \u2014 increasing the need for resilient and adaptable academic services. But another close call last year drove home a hard truth: LSU Shreveport still didn\u2019t have an emergency remote instructional plan in place.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, LSU Shreveport was one of eight colleges and universities in Louisiana participating in the Complete College America Accelerator program<\/a>, which helps cohorts develop action plans to use data to improve student success and close gaps in college access and completion. Through that Wise learned of an opportunity to take a training on Flexible Learning Environments for Improved Student Success, one of the menu of professional development programs<\/a> available through Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae and delivered by the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities. She knew it would help her campus with some of its biggest priorities in digital accessibility and online learning.<\/p>\n

A team built for student success<\/h2>\n

Wise, along with a core group of LSU Shreveport faculty and staff, took the training in spring of 2025 with the goal of drafting an emergency remote instructional plan. The team was intentionally cross-functional, bringing a range of experience to the project.<\/p>\n

Wise worked with her counterpart Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success, Angie Pellerin, to identify and remove barriers to student persistence in the event of academic disruption. They were joined by Dr. Joyce Farrow, Chair of the Department of Education, Rhonda Failey, Director of Online Learning, and Yang Xuan, a faculty member from the College of Business, which enrolls more than 90 percent of LSU Shreveport\u2019s online students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe each stood in our own area of expertise,\u201d says Wise. \u201cYou have to know what you don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not an expert in quality matters, so I made sure someone on our team was. I\u2019m not knee deep in student success initiatives around growth mindset, so I made sure somebody was there from that group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clear objectives and mindset shifts<\/h2>\n

Once the training began, Wise immediately appreciated how clear the learning objectives were. \u201cWe knew on day one what we were going to be walking away with,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The team went into the training expecting that flexible learning environments were about the technology, says Wise, and hoping to find a piece of software that would solve their problems in case of an emergency. Instead, they came away with the understanding that flexible learning comes from intentionally designing for success from the ground up.<\/p>\n

As a result, the team began looking at issues that weren\u2019t initially on their radar, like how better course navigation design can reduce the cognitive load on their students, and how building formative assessments along with summative assessments improves a student\u2019s grasp on the materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went in thinking it was technology,\u201d says Wise. \u201cWe came out thinking it\u2019s pedagogy.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Expert mentorship to create a hands-on plan<\/h2>\n