Education in the Post-Covid-19 Era
By Dr Ahmed S. Khan
Chicago, IL
The Covid-19 pandemic has severely affected the people and economies of the world. One of the sectors that has been hardest hit is education. According to UNESCO, Covid-19 has caused severe disruption in the organization and delivery of education worldwide.
As of June 1, 2020, more than 1.19 billion learners (68% of total enrolled student population from the primary to tertiary levels) in 149 countries have been affected due to school closures in an attempt to contain the pandemic. In South Asia alone, more than 406 million learners have been impacted, including 320 million in India, 46 million in Pakistan, and 40 million in Bangladesh.
There is uncertainty and concern among students, teachers, and parents around the world: Many wonder what the future holds for them. In the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, governments have announced mandatory school closures marking the end of the academic year. In some countries, localized closures have affected millions of additional learners. Developing countries have been affected more seriously by the closures due to lack of technological infrastructure, which limits the use of online teaching methods.
As world leaders and scientists battle to contain the pandemic, administrators and educators in both the developed and developing countries will need to rethink the teaching-learning process and the ways in which current and emerging technologies might be used to overcome the pandemic’s disruptions. Key issues needing to be addressed include the following:
- How will Covid-19 affect the future of education for students, faculty, and institutions?
- What aspects of higher education will undergo change at national and global levels?
- What technological tools could be employed to enhance existing online programs or develop new ones?
- What are some of the limitations and shortcomings of online education, and how could these be mitigated?
- How can faculty adapt to the challenges of online technologies to ensure effective teaching and learning?
1. How will Covid-19 affect the future of education for students, faculty, and institutions? Along with other sectors of society, the pandemic is transforming the delivery of education. Students, faculty, and institutions have had to adapt to new modes of delivery and participation in the teaching and learning process. Going forward, it is certain that online and blended modes of instruction will play a larger role at many institutions that have lagged in using these tools in the past. Institutions will have to pay attention to the design of courses, to include online and hybrid elements, in addition to modifying the existing physical environments of learning.
The online environment will force students to work more actively and independently instead of listening to lectures passively, to use research more appropriately, to take more responsibility for learning outcomes. Faculty will need to design educational content for asynchronous as well as synchronous modes of delivery that can motivate students to learn in an efficient and effective manner.
2. What aspects of higher education will undergo change at national and global levels? At both levels, the reopening of face-to-face instruction will initially require continued use of masks, disinfectants, and social distancing. Institutions will also have to address factors such as the physical layout of classrooms, seating arrangements, use of special air filters in air conditioning and heating systems to block viruses from air circulation, and real-time health monitoring and testing of students.
To address the reduced enrollments of international students, institutions will need to collaborate with international partners and strengthen their spectrum of online and hybrid offerings. In addition, greater efforts will be required to ensure digital tools/technologies availability and familiarity within the general population, to reduce the "digital divide." Stable video-conferencing platforms will continue to play a key role for events such as conferences, webinars, faculty development workshops, and student-faculty interactions.
3. What technological tools could be employed to enhance existing online programs or develop new ones? To enhance existing or start new online programs, a number of current Internet-based tools and technologies could be used for providing educational activities in synchronous and asynchronous modes. These include Learning Management Systems (LMS) platforms, video-conferencing platforms, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), mobile phone applications, YouTube and other sites offering academic educational content. In countries with low Internet access, radio and television channels can be used to provide lessons for students. Mobile phones could also be used by students and faculty for general communication and for seeking answers and providing feedback.
4. What are some of the limitations and shortcomings of online education, and how might these be mitigated? Among the shortcomings are the passive textual nature of online delivery and the potential for academic dishonesty. With the use of appropriate pedagogical techniques, such as brain-based and constructivist techniques, the monotonous textual mode of online education can be transformed into an active and efficient delivery system wherein the different learning styles of students can be matched with intentional teaching styles and formats. Reducing the potential for academic dishonesty can be incorporated into the design of educational construct. In addition to methods such as live-proctoring for the taking of tests, software and biometric tools can also be employed for preventing plagiarism in submitted academic work.
5. How can faculty adapt to the challenges of online technologies to ensure effective teaching and learning? Since teaching is about promoting learning, faculty can leverage the use of online technologies to optimize learning in online or hybrid, as well as face-to-face modes of delivery. The key factor in this effort remains effective pedagogy. Recent studies have shown that constructivist and brain-based teaching techniques promote student learning. The constructivist approach is based on the premise that learning is the result of "mental construction," in which students learn by fitting new information to what they already know. These studies are supported by research showing that the human brain can grow and change as it learns and experiences its environment, that both the developing and the mature brain are structurally altered when learning takes place, encoding learning in the brain. For effective teaching, faculty must (a) understand how the brain learns, and (b) devise and incorporate teaching strategies that enhance student learning. Among these strategies are the following:
- Active learning: A teacher should foster active learning by using an array of teaching contents, tools and techniques that promote discussion, critical thinking and problem solving. Use of real world stories, case studies, and applications promote active learning. For technical courses that require a laboratory component, incorporation of virtual and simulation experiments and projects can stimulate active learning.
- Learning Styles: A teacher should try to determine students’ preferred learning styles and adjust his/her teaching approaches accordingly to optimize student learning. Gregorc has identified four learning styles: Concrete Sequential (structure and pattern), Abstract Sequential (reason and logic), Abstract Random (Interpretation and explanation), and Concrete Random (Open-ended activity and experimentation).
- Assessment and Feedback: A teacher should incorporate formative and summativeassessment tools to gauge student learning, and to provide timely feedback to students so that they can take corrective action for improving their learning. Use of analytic and holistic rubrics, coupled with feedback using text, voice and video modes could be very effective in the online teaching environment.
- Friendly Environment: A teacher must create a stress-free online environment (synchronous/asynchronous) that encourages students to ask questions to promote discussion and high-levelthinking. A teacher should act as a mentor who can gauge students’ learning needs, and provide them viable solutions for their queries, and guide them to appropriate academic resources for completing their assignments and projects. For creating such environment, a teacher must be technically current in his or her field, and proficient in the use of various hardware, software, and web-based teaching tools.
The Covid-19 lockdown has seriously impacted education – primary to tertiary – at national and global levels. Students, faculty, and institutions have to adapt themselves to new requirements, environments, and formats of educational delivery. Those who adapt will survive, and perhaps even thrive.
(Dr Ahmed S. Khan - dr.a.s.khan@ieee.org - is a Fulbright Specialist Scholar, 2017-2021. Professor Khan has 35 years of experience in Higher Education as professor of Electrical Engineering. He is the author of many academic papers, technical books, and a series of books on Science, Technology & Society (STS); his most recent book is Nanotechnology: Ethical and Social Implications).
