As universities wrap up their spring semesters with distance learning and look ahead to uncertain learning environments in the summer and fall, two teaching and learning experts from Educause say the past two months of disruption from the coronavirus pandemic were a “wake-up call” for universities about online learning.
“It’s been really amazing to see the work effort and the creativity and ability to stand up something in a week that has taken campuses years to figure out how to do,” Kathe Pelletier, Educause’s director of student success community programs, says on a new episode of EdScoop Edition.
Pelletier, who spent her pre-Educause career working with universities on online learning initiatives, says that initially the forced move to distance learning was definitely a step forward, but that the next steps will be to modify curriculum and methods of instruction.
“I think we saw a range of responses in those early days of institutions that were very quick to jump to the need to rally the troops and get folks to transition to a remote teaching situation,” Pelletier said.
Malcom Brown, who leads the Educause Learning Initiative conference that was canceled at the last minute and moved to an online format that took place at the end of last month, says that the force transition to online learning might convert some skeptics.
“I think it’s kind of a wake-up call to higher education,” Brown says on the podcast. “There’s been a lot of prejudice against online learning, and it might be a wake up call for the people who have reservations and that things are not all bad on the online front.”
On the podcast:
The EdScoop Edition podcast is broken down into segments. Here’s what you’ll find on this episode:
Things to listen for:
EdScoop Edition is a podcast with conversations, news and analysis of the role of edtech and IT in higher education. Each episode features at least one long-form conversation, a quick digest of the news in the higher education information technology environment and a conversation with a higher ed CIO.