by CLAIRE FIELD
How many institutions will fully embrace EdTech to lift the quality of on-line delivery, student engagement and satisfaction?
What is the new COVID normal and what does it mean for us as educators? I have been pondering this for some time but in the last few days my thinking has crystallised.
In a CEDA address on the Workplace of the Future, Telstra’s CEO, Andy Penn, explained how 80 per cent of its call centre staff now choose to work from home. He also reflected on the need to think about “how we train, coach and mentor today’s job market entrants in a much more virtual world.”
Penn’s insights echoed a discussion I had during the week with a senior education leader in Singapore who observed that students in the latter years of their degrees had adapted well to fully on-line delivery during COVID and were generally happy to continue with a higher level of on-line learning. By contrast, first-year students had found it much more challenging to socialise with each other and to adapt to university life. These insights are reflected in a recent study by Studiosity.
With Australian universities grappling with if, and when, to bring students back to campus – some have indicated that lectures may remain fully online. Good pedagogy and the demand from students for greater flexibility are amongst the drivers.
While institutions grapple with defining their new COVID normal (i.e., how much on-line vs on-campus delivery) and how to support new students in a more virtual environment, we need to keep in mind that we are having these discussions against a backdrop of predominantly “On-line Teaching 1.0” (Zoom and PowerPoint).
The more strategic question is how many institutions will push on to ‘Online Teaching 2.0’ and fully embrace EdTech to lift the quality of on-line delivery, student engagement and satisfaction.
Claire Field is the host of the ‘What now? What next?’ podcast. Last year she interviewed Cherie Diaz from OpenLearning on making the shift to online learning and Professor Judyth Sachs and Jim Micsko on successful tertiary transitions in a post-COVID world.