Love It or Leave It: Has COVID-19 Forced Higher Education to Embrace Online Learning?

Love It or Leave It: Has COVID-19 Forced Higher Education to Embrace Online Learning?

Oluwunmi Ariyo, Ansa Reams-Johnson
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8992-2.ch008
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Abstract

Prior to the impact of COVID-19, more institutions had made online learning a part of the education landscape. The United Stated Department of Education acknowledged that more than 6.9 million college students were enrolled in some type of distance learning course. Although not always embraced by all parts of the higher education community, some form of online learning contributes to many college fiscal bottom lines. Classes may be fully online, or some type of hybrid or blended learning, and synchronous or asynchronous. Each plays a role in the success or failure of an online curriculum, but more importantly, each can play a role in an institution's bottom line. The pandemic pushed more institutions to switch to online and hybrid courses, particularly those referred to as synchronous courses. This chapter will examine the positives and negatives associated with the increase in moving courses to various online formats. This includes typical explorations on student engagement and technology-based issues.
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Challenges

There have always been challenges regarding the critiques on the legitimacy of online education. Some institutions were slow to accept and believe that online courses could provide a solid education. Higher education can be steeped in tradition, causing some to believe that online education would stray too far away from the Socratic method or Aristotelian logic and thus could not lead to deep inquiry. The Covid-19 pandemic caused all of education to view a temporary move to online education as necessary to carry out semesters that had already begun. With a large part of the United States closing in the spring of 2020, institutions scrambled for a fix. Still, research of online courses points to the need for strong course development and faculty involvement for their success. Much of the worry seems to occur in courses that lack faculty-student interaction. The lack of faculty-student interaction can be mediated through implementation of chat-based alternatives to online discussion forums for fully online, asynchronous courses (Dumford & Miller, 2018). Synchronous courses that meet at specific, regular intervals can also provide faculty-student interaction. However, the challenge appears to be equipment or technology based. Institutions would have to be aware of the number of students that lack equipment such as cell phones, laptops, or tablets that connect well to the chosen learning management system. Although the pandemic forced students to complete courses online, one should also take note of student perceptions of online classes. Students perceive online classes to offer more flexibility than traditional face-to-face courses (Platt et. al, 2014). For working college students, this flexibility allows for convenience often seen in community colleges.

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