Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education institutions worldwide encountered challenges when they tried switching to online learning.
Nevertheless, the experience brought out how online learning could make education more interesting and available for many students.
Lecturers and teachers should grasp the opportunities given by digital distance learning to revolutionise education for the better.
According to UNESCO, 194 countries and regions temporarily shut down their educational institutions due to the pandemic, affecting more than a billion students worldwide.
The process wasn’t easy as a result of a range of issues that includes IT problems, internet access and an absence of knowledge around digital teaching resources. Nonetheless, with careful planning and implementation, online learning has made university education more affordable, accessible, interactive, and student-centred.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Higher Education Institution study accentuated how lecturers went through a steep knowledge curve when adapting to new teaching technologies at the outset of the pandemic.
They suddenly have to document lectures, build learning resources, organize online classrooms and have some live sessions. For some students it was simple, but not for others; they learned to teach online by actively doing so as a result of the circumstances.
Annual reports by Inside Higher Ed’s found that half of the professors surveyed agree that online learning is an “effective method of teaching”
and a lot of instructors are worried that their engagement with students has reduced thanks to the shift to online learning.
However, this compassionate teaching style and the feeling of solidarity between lecturers and students should be valued and nurtured throughout institutional teaching either online or offline.
From most students’ point of view, remote learning often works well, especially if we consider students’ financial and maintenance costs. However, it can also be a loss especially when students need face-to-face learning, to complete laboratory work, or even just have social contact on campus.
Various institutions also realised that dividing teaching into multiple small learning activities like mini-lectures, group discussions, class polls and pop-up quizzes – could be more productive.
New digital skills and technology played key roles in transforming traditional classrooms into hybrid ones. Nonetheless, it must be known that such combined teaching methods improved both working hours and stress levels in teaching staff.
As such, teaching staff should have the autonomy to construct their courses. Otherwise, universities could end up establishing a blended education environment, but without the quality of education.
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There is an enormous potential for using technology to exacerbate and support learning outside of the everyday classroom.
The pandemic compelled individuals to decide what engagement would mean in the classroom, indicating how students could be more creative and how a creative exam examination can be carried out instead of the regular traditional assessment.
It is crucial to acknowledge what’s happening around us and what resources are accessible to support student learning.
Technology should not be regarded as a disruptor but as an enabler.
According to the Online College Students 2022 report, eighty-seven percent of undergraduate and graduate online students agreed or strongly agreed that online education was worth the cost. In 2020, more likely due to COVID-19, seventy-three percent of students were deemed online or partially online, compared to thirty-three percent in 2017.
Many people may think that COVID-19 learning was not good enough, however, it would be a shame to go back to an absolute face-to-face learning environment at the higher education level after seeing how far we can go; virtually.
In the next couple of years, universities will have to deal with some of the toughest circumstances they have ever encountered due to COVID-19 however, they can also embrace the changes brought about by online learning and transform higher education for the better.
