Education is forever changed by crucial shift to online classes
Universities find remote learning works better for some students
Saskatchewan's post-secondary institutions say the lessons learned through the pandemic will shape their operations for the better.
“The future, it's not a return to normal. It's not a new normal. It's a wholly other sort of take on university,” said Patti Mcdougall, vice-provost of teaching, learning and student experience at the University of Saskatchewan. “It's been an unprecedented time of making change.”
The University of Regina typically offers 90 per cent of its courses in person and 10 per cent online. The Fall 2020 semester was a complete reversal of that, with 95 per cent of classes offered remotely and only five per cent in person, said the U of R's interim provost, david Gregory.
Having already put in the work to transition classes to a virtual environment and now with a semester of experience under their belts, “the message is loud and clear” from many faculty members that remote delivery has its good points, Gregory said.
“I don't know whether we'll ever go back to the former model where almost everything is face-to-face on campus. It'll be likely a mixture of face-to-face and remote,” he added.
Remote learning offers greater access to students across the province — or out of province — who no longer have to leave their home communities to further their education. Gregory said it's beneficial particularly for Indigenous students, noting that this fall, 15 per cent of the U of R's students were self-declared Indigenous.
“That is a record high for us, and I'll suggest that part of that is increasing access to our university for those students,” he said.
Still, Gregory said student feedback shows the majority of students long to be back on campus taking in-person classes. The U of R would work to balance the demands of students who still want the traditional university experience with those who are pleased to learn remotely.
Over at the U of S, between five and 10 per cent of courses are offered online in a typical semester. But nearly 90 per cent of its fall 2020 classes were delivered remotely, with the remaining few classes requiring some in-person component like a clinical session or lab.
Mcdougall “absolutely” sees the U of S offering more online courses post-pandemic, but acknowledged that students' reaction to online classes has been mixed.
“There is a group of a students who struggle with not being on campus and they can't wait to be back on campus for a whole host of important reasons. There's also a group of students who are finding this flexibility ... super appealing,” she said.
“Going forward, we're still going to have to meet the needs of both of those groups.”
Gurjinder Singh Lehal, president of the University of Regina Students' Union (URSU), is not sold on a permanent shift to more remote learning.
While he acknowledges some students have enjoyed the newfound flexibility online classes offer, many others have struggled.
“It's really hard to approach professors. It's hard to communicate, actually, to other students and it's a completely different atmosphere,” he said.
“We learn a lot of things from our friends. We do so many activities on campus ... we think on certain issues, we discuss them in the class atmosphere, and that cannot be replaced by Zoom learning.”
Lehal particularly stressed the negative impact more remote learning could have on students' mental health if it makes them feel isolated. He said universities also need to find a better way for students to get help from professors in online courses outside of class.
Autumn Larose- Smith, president of the University of Saskatchewan Students' Union (USSU), is surprised it took a pandemic to push universities toward more online learning.
While she has not enjoyed taking classes remotely, she knows many other students who have.
“I'm very excited to see the shift to online classes. For every student that tells us they hate an online class and they want to be in-person, we have a student telling us that they love that they don't have to move out of their home,” Larose- Smith said.
She has heard from a number of first-year students asking how they can continue remote learning throughout their degree.
If the U of S can create a balance between in-person and online classes that meet student demands, Larose- Smith said it “could be a win-win situation.”
She would also like to see hybrid classes developed, where a professor teaches an in-person class and livestreams it concurrently, giving students a choice.
For Saskatchewan Polytechnic, online courses had to be developed in programs that never offered them before, like apprenticeship and health care. Other programs like business, IT and hospitality were more easily moved to remote learning, said provost Has Malik.
The pandemic has also pushed Sask. Polytech to more quickly expand its newly launched School of Continuing Education, which provides flexible learning for professionals looking to move up in careers or transition to a new one. With all the recent experience in online course development, Malik expects to see many more classes offered remotely.
But Malik said the transition online has gone beyond just classes.
Through an existing partnership with Riipen, a company that specializes in creating online work placement opportunities for students, the institution has helped a number of students during the pandemic get real-world work experience in their fields without ever leaving their homes.
Malik said students this year worked with companies across Canada and the United States, and the pandemic aided in pushing Sask. Polytech to invest in this type of online work experience.
“There's a win out of this as well. We're kind of gaining a number of insights into how we could do things very differently,” he said. “It behooves us as a post-secondary institution ... to be as forward-thinking as possible, so I think this is all good.”