The pandemic saw the rapid unrolling and implementation of mass online learning at the university level with a varied suite of tools including Zoom. Of course, the growth of online learning had been underway for some time but it was the pandemic that provided the opportunity for mass diffusion of both the techniques and the technology. My personal recollection at my own university in the years leading up to the pandemic was a general pressure to put all materials online as well as offer more online options for students in order to accommodate their “needs” and “busy schedules” so as to encourage or maintain enrollment by offering flexible learning options.
Oddly enough, the year of the pandemic, I had decided to try out two courses with web based course options – the modern equivalent of what I suppose used to be called a correspondence course – and lo and behold as fate would have it, I had to do everything online. I offered self-directed learning options with Zoom weekly tutorial interaction. In the end, I liked it more than I had imagined. Moreover, I found out that more students were able to take the more esoteric offerings I taught such as Canadian Economic History and History of Economic Thought. Indeed, the registrations in those courses doubled and tripled given that in previous years course conflicts limited the number of students that could take those courses. And, the flexibility of schedules did not hurt me either allowing for a lot more opportunities for attending online seminars around the world as well as more research activity.
Now it is true, that I still like in person teaching. The in person class I taught this fall was quite enjoyable and the attendance unlike other years of in person teaching was high and constant because the students who took the in person course I taught wanted to be there in person. Those that did not took the online courses. Which brings me to my point, the insistence of many universities – including my own – that next fall will be one hundred percent in person. Indeed, they are even insisting that a certain proportion of these in person courses be scheduled as night classes. I guess the current surge in inflation is not the only throwback to the 1970s. Given the push to online of the pre pandemic decade, such an insistence seems odd not the least because the students themselves are divided on the issue.
While some students want more in person teaching, many others want continued online to accommodate schedules that include part time work. The impact in enrollment from mandating one hundred percent in person classes is uncertain to say the least. Indeed, I can already hear my administration lamenting next year that my own courses are undersubscribed after the drop from the pandemic levels which will occur by their insistence on a return to a more inflexible scheduling system that generates more student course conflicts that prevent students from taking my courses.
I can understand why universities are maintaining they want more in person because in the end for universities it really is all about the money and ancillary revenues from parking fees, residences and campus restaurants and pubs are down dramatically. Yet, annoying a large chunk of the student body by insisting on one hundred percent in person attendance to fill up residences and cafeterias will probably erode enrollment also affecting revenues. This may be why universities while proposing one hundred percent in person classes really intend for a hybrid option in which you lecture to students in person while recording the lecture for those unable to attend.
However, hybrid class delivery requires substantial investment in classroom lecture capture technology to do properly. Moreover, in implementation what a hybrid class will likely result in is voluntary classroom attendance with everything else online – including evaluation. After all one cannot realistically have some students writing online tests and other in person at the same time and still have a level evaluation playing field. In the end it will all revert to the lowest common denominator. I personally am not looking forward to having a class of one hundred students in which by mid-term the attendance zeros out so that I have to talk to an empty room while recording. If I have to do that I may as well do everything via Zoom.
So, what is the solution? Good question. For what it is worth - and I have learned what I have to say seems to be worth little in a world where everyone’s mind is made up in advance - I think there will need to be a mix of in-person and online options for students. The in person class will be in person – no recording of lectures and no online evaluation. The online classes will be a blend of approaches and will include web based courses, Zoom type lecture courses and hybrid courses. Yes, in the end, a hybrid course is really only an online course with voluntary classroom attendance offered as a compromise that allows university administrations to pretend they have their cake and can eat it too. I think universities should aim to make sure students take about half their courses in person and the other half can be some form of online option.
Why is having a large chunk in person important? In the end, students need to experience a traditional lecture environment because a lecture, just like a performance of Macbeth, is quite different whether it is done as a live production or whether it is a film. Moreover, students need to interact socially with other students as well as their instructors as part of the learning experience. If students do not get to know their instructors and their instructors know them, how will they be able to get proper letters of reference and recommendation when the time comes?
As for the mix of what courses are online and what are in person, that is best left to individual departments and their faculty members to decide. Universities should set the broad parameters of what the blend should be but allow departments and faculty members the flexibility to determine the precise blend based on their experience of what works and what does not work. In the age of personal experience, technology and flexible tailoring of options to suit one’s needs and expectations, micro managing is something that belongs to the age of dinosaurs.
