“Up until now higher education has, for the most part, been evolving its way forward— sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes hesitantly—in its adoption of online and blended course models. But the pandemic delivered a seismic jolt that greatly accelerated this evolution, forcing higher education to become inventive and create an array of new course models to cope with a truly unique situation. Especially challenging was the fact that often the hybrid models crafted over the summer of 2020 had to be modified almost on the fly, according to the ebbs and flows of the pandemic. The result is that higher education now uses a wide and diverse spectrum of course models—so diverse, in fact, that the terminology can be confusing. Entire articles have sought to sort out the terms used for these new course models. Indeed, some institutions have appended the term ‘flex’ to their institutional name or initials in order to designate their own set of new course models. Whatever names one might use for these course models, it is clear that higher education has diversified quickly and that these models are here to stay.
The pandemic context has further required higher education to consider new elements to be addressed in these new hybrid models. Humanizing one’s online teaching has long been a point of consideration, and the pandemic has added a deeper dimension to this, calling attention to the mental and social health of its instructors and learners. The EDUCAUSE 2020 Student Technology Report determined that the “most commonly reported type of disability is a mental health disorder, which half of students who reported a disability told us they have.” Jisc has published a code of practice for well-being and mental health analytics.
Looking to the future, one ‘cost’ of the pandemic is lost learning, especially in the
K–12 sector. International higher education will have its own lost learning challenges with its current students but also with today’s K–12 students as they begin to arrive at postsecondary institutions in the near future. A researcher at Johns Hopkins University has called for a ‘tutoring Marshall plan to heal our students.’ It is clear that hybrid course models will be important to address the education of these students, allowing for more flexibility in course design and hence enhancing institutional capacity to address the learning needs of an even more diverse student body.
The question for institutions is whether to retain these hybrid models, abandon them and return to more traditional models, or inhabit some kind of middle ground. Some may see the recent foray into hybrid learning as the future, leading to fully online higher education careers for students. Against that there is the consistent finding across the EDUCAUSE student studies: ‘Students continue to want face-to-face classes more than any other learning environment, with a majority preferring either completely or mostly face-to-face.’ The opportunity for international higher education is to find the right balance point to best serve its teaching and learning mission.”
Source: NMC Horizon Report: 2021 Higher Education Edition
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