Has the leap online changed higher education forever?

Finishing my teaching on line made me realise that the future is the traditional classroom. The students were passive and did not engage in the way one would hope. The technology was not as good as the training videos, essentially marketing tools I decided, suggested. John

I feel that we need a much more critical discourse about the online love affair that has ensued to date, since it became absolutely necessary to put everything onto an electronic repository as a minimum requirement. Many have of course got much more sophisticated approaches to the digitisation of learning, however it is worth remembering that a) much of the positivity is coming from areas of the sector with a vested interest in reporting success of electronic and online approaches (nothing wrong with that but should be acknowledged) b) we really don't have any idea concerning the impact this is yet having on the learning experience and overall quality for students (from a range of demographics) and staff. Only a robust evaluation and proper comparison to counterfactual alternatives, such as face-to-face delivery, and over time will yield any meaningful evidence.

Teaching online is a skill and it takes time to master. Students forced online with a few days notice will struggle. Educators need to be compassionate with themselves and their students. They will be less engaged online if you can only interact with them using predominantly classroom pedagogies and video. But to suggest the future is a classroom - you're entitled to such an opinion but how do you deal with your classroom being one of the most inaccessible spaces in the world right now? Even with lockdowns lifted, all your students can't suddenly magic themselves back. They are, however, available online...

We are going to have to deal with this as more than what has unfortunately for most of us been a knee jerk reaction to the unexpected. I agree with former contributor, to create meaningful teaching and and indeed content in an online setting cannot be done overnight. This is a gradual process which needs time, investment motivation and proper funding. I hope the institutional powers that be realise this.

The current covid 19 crisis has not led to any peaking of e-learning. It has led to an increase in online delivery of courses and an ongoing rush by universities to switch to online delivery. University administrators and professors must stop using the English language so flippantly. Increased online delivery of courses cannot be equated with more or increasing levels of e-learning. Course delivery (online and offline) does not mean students have or will learn. The extent to which students will learn even online depends on their level of readiness, degree of interest in the subject, their effort, the quality of teaching, independent of age, gender, ethnicity, social class, geography and religious beliefs. If lecturers (professors as they are called at university level) continue to lecture, then the only students who would remember and properly explain and comment on any concept, theory, experiment would be those who were exposed to that subject before and/or could cram well. Leturers, even for online purposes, have to be trained through webinars/workshops on how to teach. Any avoidance of ignoring of this requirement would mean that students online would still not learn. All teachers, in the true sense of the word, are familiar with the truism 'if my students are not learning, then I am or was not teaching, online or offline.'