Four lessons institutions can gain from online learning during the pandemic: Opinion

Postsecondary institutions can draw on four lessons from the pandemic-driven change to online learning, write Athabasca University Professors F Haider Alvi, Janice Thomas, Martha Cleveland-Innes and Associate Professor Deborah Hurst. The authors write that ideal online education is different from the quick attempts to bridge the physical distance gap. Alvi, Thomas, Cleveland-Innes, and Hurst recommend that institutions be sensitive to learner needs rather than creating a one-size-fits-all educational approach, design teaching and learning purposefully, and use blended space and time to allow students to engage in collaborative synchronous and asynchronous learning. The authors also say that institutions should continue to innovate, as artificial intelligence will continue the learning disruption. The Conversation Note: Archived stories may contain dead links or be missing source links.