Is this the New Normal in Education?
Vaibhav Kumar Srivastava
Google Cloud's Education Sales Leader | Mentor | Early Stage Investor | Public Speaker | Edu-Aficionado
I was moderating a panel discussion few days back, when one of my co-panelist Antarpreet Singh, Director - Digital Learning, Indian School of Business made this comment. "I keep listening to this phrase - The New Normal. This is not a new normal, this is actually not normal, this is Abnormal".
It was a profound statement. That set me thinking if this is abnormal, then what is or will be "The New Normal" or whether there ever be a New Normal?
According to Wikipedia, "New Normal is a term used to reflect a change in society particularly in relation to business and economics, that refers to significant change in financial and business conditions." What it doesn't say & if I may dare to add, New Normal is mostly long term if not permanent, but highly unlikely to be reversible.
By that definition, we are currently in an ephemeral phase, mostly driven by beyond control external conditions, similar to Force Majeure. The New Normal would actually be at post Covid phase when government regulations, SOPs related to Covid-19 will be retracted.
Hence, the questions that need to be preempted now are:
- Will the Educational Institutes operate the same way as Pre-Covid?
- Will the parents send the children to schools/colleges the same way?
- What would be their concerns or expected precautions to ensure safety of their wards?
- What infrastructural, educational & technological changes would be required to run the campus?
While I am not an expert futurist, in my opinion, here are a few components that would be integral to the New Normal in Education:
- Hybrid Learning Model: If you are one of the schools who provisioned for Online classes thinking that you will need it for few months, please rethink. Even when the things become 'Normal', students will demand provisions to attend classrooms remotely. Ensure you are already working toward a hybrid learning model that allows students to attend classes on campus as well as remotely. Same applies for teachers/faculties too.
- Online Assessments: No school/college/university can afford to risk an academic year. Assessment is an integral function of promoting a student. Online or proctored or teacher monitored remote examinations/assessment capabilities need to be sought. This is already a trending solution for education with a lot of Edtech cos already venturing into this market. Options are there for you to choose.
- Health & Safety Apps: While we all have physical safety on Campus like CCTVs etc, the New Normal will demand SOPs to allow only healthy students to come to the Campus. Your school app should have provisions to record temperature, cough & cold symptoms or linkage to govt apps like Aarogya Setu, before you allow students to enter the campus. This will be made mandatory by government in my opinion.
- Redesign Facilities for Social Distancing: You might have to start thinking to redesign classrooms, libraries, cafeterias etc that allows social distancing. That might include phased out recess breaks, sports/PT periods, etc. You will have to re-imagine cultural fests, annual functions, convocation ceremonies etc.
- Digital Libraries: Digital Libraries will finally become real in its truest sense. Issuing of e-books online, policy based access, cloud storage, etc will have to be made accessible to students & teachers.
- Digital Lockers: Issuance of Mark Sheets, Transfer Certificates, Degrees, other related physical documents will have to be delivered online in a digitally secure manner. This may not be immediate but the future of this getting mandated is not very far.
One theme that is going to be common in enabling all of the above is Technological Intervention. Whether we like it or not, technologies like Cloud, AI, ML, blockchain etc will be the backbone for efficiently running an academic institute. IT will no longer be a cost center, but a business critical function. If you are an early adopter of tech, you already have an edge. If you are still thinking about it, you are losing time fast. Act now!!!
Liked the article? Want to know more about me or my views on other subjects? Also read:
Former CEO JK Helene Curtis,Adjunct Faculty IIM Indore(08-15), Corporate Trainer, Coach / Mentor to Start ups, Penguin Best Selling Author of 'The New Rules of Business' & 'The 10 New Life Changing Skills'
4 年Wonderful article. Here are my perspectives: 1. Faculty need to re-skill themselves to deliver content online. 2. Death of distance and the world is the market: Migration towards Online has expanded the market from which students and faculty can be 'attracted / sourced'. 3. Students will purse degrees in multiple Universities / colleges - depending upon her requirements. 4. Students will opt for 'skill / competency' courses. There will be certification not degree courses 5. Competitive advantage (read: entry barrier) of legacy university are likely to be commoditised.
Course Developer at InterSystems
4 年I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about what the New Normal will look like after the pandemic. Your predictions may not be perfect, but I think they're a good guess about what will come next. We've all flocked to technology to aid in social distancing, and I don't think everyone will want to go back to how things were before. I anticipate more people working from home at least a few days per week, more video chat hangouts with friends and family, scheduling virtual office hours with professors and more blended and online courses.
Ex CEO-CLO-APAC Head | Professor of Practice | Chair: Executive Education | FUJITSU | TELLABS | ALCATEL LUCENT | JIO | ISB | AI led HRM | Digital Transformation 5.0 | AI led Product Management | AI Adoption in Business |
4 年Great article Vaibhav- the moment of truth would be next year when we come out of pandemic - would we go back to old ways (I don’t think so) or some evolution would have taken place (blended model) - that will be new normal. Anything done under compulsion is not normal (new).