Abstract
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced the world to respond in new and unconventional ways. Quick thinking and unusual flexibility were required whilst operating under conditions of uncertainty and fear. This article deals with agility in the implementation of distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic as it occurred at Ohalo College of Education with the outbreak of the epidemic in Israel in March 2020.
 
 Within 48 hours from the moment that Israel’s government announced a nation-wide lockdown, the College shifted from frontal teaching and learning to social distancing and distance teaching. The College adopted agile leadership that led to moving 700 courses to distance learning and teaching, with 150 lecturers and 1,500 students in their homes; the semester continued, but differently, in light of the lockdown and limitations ordered by the government. It is clear that such swift organization, executed with maximum flexibility, did not benefit from proper planning and was far perfect. This article offers a look at academic agility as demonstrated during the transition of a college of education to distance learning under emergency conditions. It will be examined through an analysis of survey responses from students. The goal of the survey was to assess students’ attitudes toward the implementation of this strategy.
Highlights
This article seeks to describe a process in which agile leadership guided an academic organization, namely a college of education in Israel, as it coped with the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which all institutions of education and higher learning in the country were closed
We emphasize “emergency-mode” in order to show how this case differs from the general use of the term “distance learning,” which refers to a planned online format that implements distance learning pedagogy
All of the findings shown above will be analyzed below in congruence with distance learning processes and the “agility” process that occurred at the time of the outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic outbreak
Summary
This article seeks to describe a process in which agile leadership guided an academic organization, namely a college of education in Israel, as it coped with the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which all institutions of education and higher learning in the country were closed. A swift solution was required, one that drew on flexibility and agility under uncertain conditions. It needed to preserve and continue organizational activities, and to move from study at the college to a system of study, teaching, practice and management from afar. With the outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic in Israel in the beginning of March 2020, unexpected emergency plans were created, whose central expression was emergency-mode distance teaching, requiring an agile organizational response
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