The Year that was: Looking back at 2020

It is that time of the year when we start reflecting on what we achieved and what we did not (i.e., end of the year). 2020 is one of those years when most of us waited long for this time and are looking forward to the next year. Unfortunately, it does not look that optimistic for the year 2021 as well, though vaccines for COVID-19 are already around. It would be quite sometime before common folks like us get the vaccine and start a normal life. The lock-down disrupted our plans, and we did our best to respond to the emergent needs of our stakeholders. World Bank estimated that the COVID-19 pandemic COVID-19 was likely to push between 88 and 115 million people globally into extreme poverty (those living under $1.90-a-day) and governments may lose as much as 16% of the investments made in basic education as the learning losses due to lock-down of just five months could be about $10 trillion. The responses of the educational practitioners and governments around the world to the challenge posed by COVID-19 are exemplary, though not perfect. A report from Commonwealth of Learning (COL) by Prof. Asha Kanwar and Sir John Daniel documents some key efforts from around the Commonwealth.  In the early days of the Pandemic, it became clear for me that the demands from the society as well as my employer would be much higher than expected. As an open distance and online learning professional with over a quarter century of experience, it was all together a different story for me -- What the COVID-19 pandemic did almost overnight, years of advocacy and capacity building could not do before.  Here, I present a glimpse of the major activities that I completed in 2020 to review the year without any international travel. In retrospect, this year was very successful from the perspective of what and how I contributed to my organization and society as a professional.

As the World Health Organization declared the pandemic, work from home became mandatory. While blurring of professional and personal life was already there in my life (as I often also work in the evenings to meet and discuss with stakeholders from different time zones in the Commonwealth), work from home exacerbated the same. At COL, we realized it early that our stakeholders would require more support, and as a leader in open distance and online learning, we quickly started activities under the leadership and direction of Prof. Asha Kanwar. I contributed to the COL Statement on COVID19 released on March 13, 2020, and created a curated resource page on teaching and learning, which was later on enlarged to create a network on International Partnership of Distance and Online Learning for COVID-19 (OpenDoor). I also contributed to COL’s Guidelines on Distance Education during COVID-19. Prof. Kanwar also entrusted me to develop a series of video resources with Dr. Tony Bates, a leading scholar in technology-mediated education. We recorded 12-video lessons based on Dr. Bates’ highly popular book – Teaching in a Digital Age. These videos were initially planned to be recorded at COL studio, but due to lock-down, we had to record these online ? both me and Dr. Bates working from home! Once the videos were ready, I converted the videos along with the open textbook to create an open, self-paced online course by adding assessment questions. So, this is now available as an open course that can be completed by anyone to receive a certificate, and the videos have also been translated into Russian by the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education.

As the normal travel and onsite training activities were disrupted, I planned to start online training using synchronous tool, such as ZOOM, which was already being used by me to regularly connect with the partner institutions of Technology-Enabled Learning Community of Practice (CoP). One of the earliest transformations I planned was to convert a 2-day workshop at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) into a 12-part Webinar-based course on “Design and Development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)” between April 16 to May 30, 2020. During this period, I assessed 434 assignments submitted by the participants! In total, 76 participants received a certificate of completion successfully. Post this training, UMS offered its first MOOC on “Introduction to Biorisk Management”. Talking about MOOCs, I would like to thank Prof. Martha Cleveland-Innes and her team of colleagues at Athabasca University, who agreed to and offered the “Introduction to Technology-Enabled Learning” and “Blended Learning Practice” MOOCs multiple times during the period to support teachers. During this period, I continued to design and deliver many more online training activities using online synchronous meetings. In the process, I also realized that Webinars would soon become a trend and thus, created a video on “How to conduct effective webinars?”. In all, I participated in 42 Webinar sessions in 2020, either organized by COL or by other organizations from around the world. This includes six sessions for TEL CoP, four sessions for OpenDoor, two consultation webinars for the OER4COVID initiative that I steered in partnership with Dr. Wayne Mackintosh of OER Foundation, New Zealand, a session of the Silver Lining for Learning (facilitated by Professors Curtis J. Bonk, Shuangye Chen, Chris Dede, Scott McLeod, Punya Mishra, and Yong Zhao) and a live Television show on IndiaAhead.

While the Webinar spree continued, I contributed several blogs/essays on different topics (Tiktok, open education, learning during pandemic, strategic planning, impact factor, change, great books of 2020). I also edited a book entitled “Technology-Enabled Learning: Policy, Pedagogy and Practice” with Prof. Santosh Panda and wrote four chapters included in this book. This was a herculean task possible only with the support of the 23 contributors from 10 countries. On the publication front, my works also reached other languages and new publication routes – I wrote an article on online education in Oriya (my mother tongue) published in the Samaja (started in 1919), the paper entitled “Worldwide wisdom of the crowd in education and development” was translated by Prof. Junhong Xiao into Chinese and published in Distance Education in China, and a short paper on blended learning in India was published in the University World News.

Some of my works at the Commonwealth of Learning also received international recognition in 2020. For example, the Commonwealth Digital Education Leadership Training in Action platform started in 2015 was amongst the Finalist of the Falling Walls 2020 in the digital education category. The Understanding Open Educational Resources course won a prestigious Brandon Hall Group Silver Award for excellence in the Learning Management Measurement/Business Impact Tools category.

Overall, the hallmark of the year was collaboration. I had the opportunity and privilege to work with several leading online learning experts and organizations. Some of the organizations with whom I collaborated or contributed to their activities are: Ambedkar University Delhi, Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, Athabasca University, Canada, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Digital University, Bangladesh, Beijing Normal University, eCampus Ontario, Canada, European Distance and E-Learning Network, Indira Gandhi National Open University, India, Indonesian Communication Scholars Association, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology, Kenya, KK Handiqui State Open University, India, Open Education Global, OER Foundation, New Zealand, Open University of Sri Lanka, Punjab University, India, Sambalpur University, India, UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and Universiti Malaysia Sabah. My sincere thanks to all the organizations and my long list of friends and colleagues (not named here) who supported me during this period and invited to contribute, without them it would not have been possible to even think of completing some of these tasks that I am sharing with pride.

What I think of this roller-coaster year? What have I learned? Online learning is not new. I have been doing this for at least 20 years. But suddenly everyone is now talking about online learning. So, is it mainstream now? Is it going to continue and not become a “band-aid approach”? Well, time will tell us what would happen in future. However, one thing is very clear – that things are not going to be business as usual. There will be some change, the degree of which will be different from contexts to contexts. The COVID-19 pandemic has also re-iterated some previous learning in life, and I would like to highlight these for others to think and reflect.

1)   Logic fails to impress at the time of crisis. Leaders take impulsive decisions quickly. At that time logic and rationality take back seat. Despite our understanding that online learning is not the best solution in all contexts, it was a recommended approach by many governments and educational institutions, even if it exacerbated inequalities.

2)   Bandwagon effect. People follow others without thinking during the time of crisis. Those who take the first step lead the race. Despite our understanding that synchronous video conferencing is not online learning, webinars have become so common that there is now a webinar fatigue.

3)   Misinformation grows manifold during pandemic. Digital nature of information makes it vulnerable to manipulation and spreading fast. There is stronger need for media and information literacy, including digital education skills. It is always important to remember who is telling the story, and what is the perspective/ideology behind the same.

4)   Power gets centralized during crisis. Questioning authority figures could be damaging for career and life. Many people have lost jobs during this period. Read more about future scenarios from Bryan Alexander.

5)   Selfishness is one of the basic human instincts. People think about themselves, their family, or their institution during crisis. While collaboration is key during crisis, many institutions compete to show that they are doing more than others. The over emphasis on webinar is an example of how many institutions are just trying to do something to satisfy their personal goals. 

You may have many different observations. What am I going to do more in the next year?

The simple answer is “I don’t know”. But there is a plan, and the plan is to be flexible and realistic, listening to others (colleagues, stakeholders, friends) and collaborating more often. I missed connecting with many of my friends in 2020 and I will try to reconnect to keep my mental health in balance. Welcome to 2021 with hope for Good Times.