Well everybody’s doing it now, and will continue to do so for the near future (online learning that is). What the Corona pandemic is over, I’m pretty sure that we won’t go back to doing things the way we did before. A lot of people are now used to online learning and see some of the advantages of it. In my opinion this means that after the pandemic we will see a much greater uptake in blended learning.

The initial stages of going online at the start of the Corona pandemic seemed to involve a lot of extra work for teachers, unfortunately. I think it is only natural that teachers wanted to record lectures that they used pre-pandemic. The extra work involved didn’t only involve recording (and planning and editing of video) but the improvement of, for example, PowerPoint slides, as the teacher realised that these materials would exist more extensively outside of the lecture hall. Hopefully this extra-work stage has peaked; at the time of writing, universities (and schools) moved to online teaching approximately 10 months ago.

As a result, I suggest that now is the right time to think about the next stage, that is well planned online or blended learning. The explosion in information that the Internet has given us, and a reading of pedagogical theories (for example https://infolit.org.uk/teaching/developing-your-teaching/pedagogic-theory/), show us the desirability of teachers changing in their role from content delivery to facilitator, and students being more active learners.

There are a number of models that exemplify the teacher’s role as a facilitator (Conole 2015, Salmon 2013, Universal Design for Learning, Vaughan et al. 2013).  In my opinion, universities and schools should prioritize support in the following areas to promote teachers becoming facilitators and students being active learners.

• Support for teachers in facilitating and promoting social connectedness and interactivity
• Support for teachers in creating engagement in topics
• Support for teachers and students in use of digital tools and online spaces

References

Conole, G. (2015). The 7Cs of Learning Design. [manuscript] https://opennetworkedlearning.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/the-7cs-of-learning-design.pdf

Salmon, G (2013) The Five Stage Model. [Homepage] http://www.gillysalmon.com/five-stage-model.html

Universal Design for Learning (UDL). [Homepage] https://www.cast.org/impact/universal-design-for-learning-udl

Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. Edmonton: AU Press. Chapter 1 “The Community of Inquiry Conceptual framework”.