Online education beyond Covid-19: Lessons learned for the educational institution

Online education is not going anywhere.

A fundamental shift in the method of production necessitates a reimagining of the educational system. With its emphasis on memorisation and standardisation, our current educational system falls short of meeting the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution.

Online education is critical and vital to the evolution of technology and consumer preferences. Hybrid learning and online programmes will be essential to the long-term viability of many colleges. Students will be drawn to and enrolled in colleges that provide online education with flexible scheduling options. Numerous nations have already integrated alternative technology into their classrooms, including augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality-based learning. In many regions of the world, the ‘blended learning’ concept is gaining popularity.

Globally, the COVID-19 epidemic triggered public health and economic crises, highlighting our interconnection and interdependence. Governments suspended economic activity to protect individuals from contracting or spreading the Covid-19.

Education and public health are critical components of every country’s economy; these human capital factors boost individual productivity and prosperity in any country. Individuals’ and nations’ well-being can be influenced by their population’s educational achievement and healthcare access. Adopting innovative educational models adds to economic growth and development by increasing individuals’ potential to earn more and achieve socioeconomic well-being, resulting in a healthier and happier society.

During COVID-19, change is occurring quicker than ever before; all political, social, economic, and corporate stakeholders are attempting to adapt to COVID-19 to survive the public health and financial crises. Educational institutions must promptly adjust to the COVID-19 epidemic. However, a substantial number of them were already planning and preparing their systems and current models to deliver an adequate education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which requires a move to online education, with over 60% of learning predicted to occur online by 2022.

Schools, colleges and universities have been forced to shift their mode of delivery from onsite to online, posing new challenges in terms of access, technology, training, digital resources, and assessment, as well as a sea change in workplace culture.

Students, instructors, and staff communicate via the internet and different digital devices such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and personal computers. Access requirements restrict access to individuals with an internet connection and a digital device capable of communicating in both asynchronous and synchronous modes, creating a digital gap between those without and without.

This digital gap will exacerbate the social, economic, and political divides currently present in the world, making it even more inequitable and unsustainable. Public-private collaborations can help solve this obstacle by providing all learners with free internet access and educational digital gadgets.

Educational institutions must have a learning management system (LMS), a content management system (CMS), and a conferencing tool such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, or another similar tool to deliver online education in synchronous and asynchronous modes. Publish each course to the CMS and the curriculum, lesson plans containing instructional materials, assignments, activities, quizzes, and projects to the LMS. Numerous public universities lack a learning management system, an asynchronous learning content management system, and asynchronous learning conferencing tool.

Offer technical assistance to students, instructors, and staff, and train teachers to deliver online education. Numerous educational institutions are tasked with training instructors and personnel and populating the CMS with the course curriculum, lesson plans containing instructional materials, assignments, activities, quizzes, and projects.

Traditional libraries are unavailable, necessitating the creation of digital libraries to give educational materials to students and instructors. Several free educational resources are available online; but, a membership to a comprehensive digital library is costly. HEC provides a membership to the HEC digital library, as well as access to additional digital libraries.

Assessment: The COVID-19 pandemic limits the usual examination setting for the summative evaluation by requiring students to congregate under one roof to authenticate their identities and guarantee they are not cheating on the test. Summative assessment applications and services for proctored tests are accessible online, but they require infrastructure support in the form of bandwidth and digital communication devices equipped with a webcam. The old assessment methodology, which relies on 70% summative and 30% formative evaluation, is being phased out, favouring the formative and performance-based assessment. The online exam enables formative evaluation through facilitator comments and summative assessment through group projects, personalised assignments, and inspiring students to utilise all available resources rather than restricting them.

Changes to the workplace and workplace culture: Online learning from anywhere, at any time, has a profound effect on the workplace and workplace culture of students, instructors, and staff. They require counselling and assistance as they transition from onsite to online delivery, including unlearning old learning modes and relearning new ones.

Numerous parties, including government agencies, educators, publishers and producers, technological donors, and telecommunications providers, have banded together to address the public health and economic crises. Confederations and alliances of learning have been increasingly visible in recent weeks; nations are focusing on the continuance of learning throughout this global health crisis, providing a variety of approaches and modules along with technological advancements for online education programmes.

China provides tablets and PCs to low-income students and subsidises mobile data bundles. In France, hardcopy assignments are distributed to the 5% of students who lack access to the internet. The UAE government has developed a hotline service for instructors and students experiencing connectivity issues to mitigate interruption. While in Hong Kong, over 60 educational institutions, media organisers, publishers, and professionals from the entertainment business provide access to over 900 instructional resources, including books, films, evaluation and assessment tools, and free counselling services.

According to futurist Thomas Frey, founder and director of DaVinci Institute, “the world is changing at a breakneck pace; 10 years from now, education will look very different.” While it may not feel that way, we are in the midst of a massive transformation.”

We must invest in digital infrastructure, expand global collaboration, and forge public-private partnerships to ensure that all students have access to high-quality education and the opportunity to continue learning throughout their lives through a variety of learning routes. The public health and economic crises have altered the global landscape; academics must adapt or die since change is not voluntary.

Today, education’s mission is to empower learners to act as change agents to establish a sustainable environment and ensure people’s health and well-being and all other species. Together, we can generate shared understanding via cooperation and collaboration, averting ecological disasters and advancing technology for the benefit of society.

References

Online Teaching and Learning in Higher Education during COVID-19: International Perspectives and Experiences: Edited By Roy Y. Chan, Krishna Bista, Ryan M. Allen, August 2021, Routledge

Pedagogical Best Practices: Residential, Blended, and Online, https://teachremotely. harvard.edu/best-practices, accessed September 22, 2021

Academia Letters preprint.

?2021 by the author – Open Access – Distributed under CC BY 4.0