Learning has a new benchmark to deal with — on the web
Blended education is what institutions need to set course for
Millions of educators and learners have had to make a sudden shift to remote learning after the Covid-19 outbreak. The question is, how will this emergency immersion into online learning affect the outlook for education once the pandemic subsides?
While day-to-day life will perhaps return to normal at some point, for education there will have to be a new one. Learners will now expect to be able to seamlessly switch between inperson and virtual formats. And they will continue to expect the quality education they have paid for — one that will best prepare them for the next stage of their lives.
Educational institutions, too, now recognise online education as pivotal to institutional resilience and academic continuity. Here are some ways in which the pandemic has changed the future of education.
Blended learning
Institutions were already experimenting with varying degrees of digital learning before the pandemic. But they will return from Covid-19 with a widely shared understanding that digital tools can be highly complementary to face-to-face learning, and that teaching and learning with asynchronous and synchronous platforms can yield significant benefits when layered in with face-to-face instruction. This hybrid model, known as blended learning, will become one of the key models for post-pandemic pedagogy.
Technical fluency
There are two complimentary approaches to online teaching and learning: one is to build a robust infrastructure of relevant platforms and technologies, and the other is to invest in faculty development and support. One of the greatest challenges in the abrupt transition to fully remote learning during the pandemic was the lack of fluency in the tools of teaching online.
For this, educators need access to continuous professional development opportunities.
Course design
In the rush to take them online, many courses were quickly built to mimic or retrofit them to face-to-face sessions. This approach does not necessarily maximise the many possibilities presented by digital learning.
Courses will likely be designed and even remediated to better suit digital learning. In general, courses need regular revamping to stay abreast of latest research and to properly leverage the latest innovations in education technology.
Data-driven
Online teaching and learning tools have dramatically aided student engagement in the time of Covid-19, and these will continue to be leveraged to drive learner interest and active participation well beyond. In addition to significantly boosting interactivity and collaboration between students, these tools can also provide learner analytics.
Data-driven insights enable new ways to engage students, increase enrolment and improve retention and completion rates.
They can identify at-risk students, optimise assessments, promote reflection and self-regulated learning, establish feedback loops and even boost faculty development.
Upon return, educational institutions will increasingly use data and learner analytics as a base for making strategic decisions and to boost overall student enrolment, engagement and retention.