As education institutions struggled to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of their fundamental problems were brought to the surface. Emergency adjustments to online learning were intended to minimize the disruption to learning as much as possible in the midst of a global pandemic. But now that schools in the US are beginning to reopen for in-person instruction, it is time to critically assess these changes to higher-education and consider their long-term impact on the future of college learning. This chapter will confront these issues and explore how education resources can be used to ensure student engagement and prevent social isolation in future modes of hybrid and online learning.
TopBackground
COVID’s most visible impact on education has been the shift to online learning. There is still debate over whether online-learning can deliver similar results as face-to-face instruction. According to a US Department of Education study from 1996 to 2008, students in online-learning conditions performed, on average, “modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” However, a 2017 study from the Brookings Institute came to a contrary conclusion, noting that online learning can exacerbate the differences between high and low performing students. While it may be a passable solution for those students who were already engaged and high-achieving, “the negative effects of online course taking are concentrated in the lowest performing students,” causing them to fall further behind their peers (Bettinger and Loeb, 2017).
But neither study could possibly have accounted for the conditions of online education in 2020, in which the emergency shift to online learning was also accompanied by significant emotional stress and social isolation. The threats and disruptions of COVID-19 caused a surge of anxiety, stress, and withdrawal in many students and faculty (Elmer et al., 2020). It is evident that going forward, online learning will have to contend with the legacy of its association with social isolation and prescribe an approach that considers the human need for community and connection. One such proposal is the “Hyflex” model, a new model of study that combines elements of in-person and online learning. This approach may provide an effective hybrid of in-situ and in-class learning to help students attain more flexibility and control over their study experience. Perhaps in the future, social interfacing platforms such as Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, etc. can be replaced by “instant feedback” systems made possible through Artificial Intelligence (AI). Already, there are startups and companies investing billions of dollars through venture capitalism into this dynamically growing new field.
One of the main concerns voiced by educators is that online learning prevents students from obtaining a more holistic education: one that focuses not only on academics, but also social life and collaboration. Prior to online learning, students were encouraged to collaborate with each other to solve problems, research, and explore new ideas in the classroom. Unfortunately, the shift to online learning has impeded these forms of communication and networking. Furthermore, students have been unable to study-abroad or conduct internships during COVID, which has forced them to postpone both personal and professional milestones.
To address these shortcomings, colleges and institutions of higher education will need to dramatically reconfigure the way online learning connects students with each other and with their instructors. This paper will analyze some of the primary, long-term impacts of this loss of in-person instruction and propose solutions to improve online learning in the future.