Keio University's 2020 COVID-19 Response ② IT Environment

2021/06/17

Since February 2020, when we recognized that the novel coronavirus infection (hereafter COVID-19) was likely to have an extraordinary impact, we have worked with the goal of ensuring that student learning is not interrupted under any circumstances.

In March, when it was decided that classes and new semester guidance for the beginning of the Spring 2020 semester would be moved entirely online, preparing the communication infrastructure to support this became an urgent task. The environments available for online education prepared prior to COVID-19 included (1) a traditional Learning Management System (LMS), (2) Webex accounts for the web conferencing system already distributed to all 36,000 students and faculty/staff, (3) the common authentication platform keio.jp and affiliated notification sites utilizing it, (4) email and file sharing functions via G-suite, and (5) file sharing functions via Box. In addition to these, we conducted an emergency distribution of (6) Zoom accounts to faculty and staff (approximately 10,000 accounts) in response to strong requests, and prepared for the spring semester with a combination of these tools.

While some undergraduate and graduate schools launched real-time online education and began preparations early in mid-March, a university-wide policy was decided at the end of March to guarantee the provision of on-demand classes, assuming that systems would become overloaded and unstable both socially and within the university. Consequently, the creation of manuals for faculty and students, the construction of online help sites, and the holding of training sessions were carried out at each campus across the entire Juku.

At the beginning of April, a state of emergency was declared and campuses were closed, leading to the rapid implementation of telework environments for administrative departments. In addition to strengthening existing VPN facilities, we launched a workflow system that was under development and introduced 400 remote desktop system accounts. We also established guidelines for working from home for staff and implemented laptop lending programs.

It was also necessary to pay attention to the environment on the student side. To reduce their financial burden, we implemented the "Online Class Start Support Subsidy System," providing subsidies of up to 15,000 yen per person to 1,885 students (subsidies were later provided to part-time lecturers as well). Furthermore, after the first state of emergency was lifted at the end of May, we prepared computer rooms on campus where online education could be accessed to support students who felt inconvenienced by taking classes at home or in dormitories.

Subsequently, once it was decided that online classes would be the primary mode for the remainder of the spring semester for most undergraduate and graduate schools, demands for the system increased further. The demand for functional improvements to the LMS was particularly high. Issues such as insufficient file storage capacity and the difficulty of using online testing functions were pointed out, and we responded accordingly. It felt like walking on thin ice to perform maintenance on critical systems while they were in operation.

In July, when the prospect of getting through the spring semester became clear, considerations for the fall began in earnest. While surveys and other data deepened our confidence in the effectiveness of online education, it was clear that the psychological burden on students was increasing, and we desperately wanted to restore campus life, including face-to-face classes. However, consideration was also needed for social distancing and for students who could not come to Japan, such as international students. Therefore, we envisioned so-called "HyFlex" hybrid education, where face-to-face classes are conducted while simultaneously being offered online. To achieve this, it was necessary to equip classrooms with AV equipment in addition to ICT devices. Specifically, we installed permanent equipment and enabled online class support in 87 classrooms at Mita, 70 at Hiyoshi, 27 classrooms/meeting rooms at Yagami, 17 at SFC, and 2 at Shiba-Kyoritsu. We also enhanced rental equipment at each campus, including Shinanomachi, making it possible to flexibly conduct online education anywhere on campus. Additionally, anticipating an increase in Wi-Fi load due to remote class participation on campus, we added 33 access points at Mita, 48 at Hiyoshi, 6 at Yagami, and 3 at Shiba-Kyoritsu. It was fortunate that we had fully upgraded the backbone network within Keio to 10 gigabit compatibility the previous year.

The renewal of the LMS (introduction of the Canvas system) was also a major undertaking. A learning management system is indispensable for online education, and many requests were received for enhanced functionality. Although the previous system was well-made, it was old, had limits to functional upgrades, and there were concerns regarding stable operation. Therefore, we took the bold step of installing a new system through a rush project, starting pilot operations in the fall semester and full-scale operations from 2021.

As the degree of system dependency increased, the importance of cybersecurity grew, and the activities of attackers became more frequent. It was deeply regrettable that we allowed an attacker to breach some systems, resulting in the leak of personal information from the LMS used by the undergraduate and graduate schools in Fujisawa. We shut down the system to prevent the damage from spreading to other faculties, but since this was just before the start of the fall semester, we were forced to postpone the start of classes by one week. Because of this, we accelerated the preparation of the cybersecurity organization and authority regulations, and in November, we launched a specialized department, the "Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT)," to take charge of operations, including the various defense systems already introduced.

While I have focused on the major initiatives above, there were many other efforts, such as the convenience store certificate issuance service for students seeking employment and for alumni.

Finally, I would like to emphasize that even while rushing to respond to COVID-19, we strove to maintain a medium- to long-term perspective. In the world of education and research, rapid progress is being made centered on digital technology in (1) international collaboration programs, (2) lifelong education customized for individual pupils, students, and alumni, and (3) work-style reforms to secure diverse and talented human resources. Within this, the LMS will become a core mechanism for digitizing the learning history of individual students and pupils to provide optimal education. We also advanced considerations for data research infrastructure in response to the shift toward data science, which is progressing not only in medical sciences and other sciences but also in the humanities. Furthermore, workflow systems are beginning to enable not only efficiency through electronic approval but also the analysis of organizational management status through data. We hope to overcome the misfortune of COVID-19 by using it as a springboard for the future.