Two years of covid restrictions have changed the opinion of society regarding the online learning in many ways. Our attitude became more negative.
The load on teachers has increased due to the need to prepare presentation materials for lectures and practical classes. The students became overly “relaxed” due to the weaker supervision from the teachers, which led to a serious drop in their level of knowledge. But the main thing is that offline and warm communication in the audience has grown into a “routine pastime” in front of a computer screen - everything has become boring and formal. Education has lost a very important feature - the ability to exchange ideas, experience and energy between teachers and students. And this has negatively affected the students' ability to understand and produce innovative solutions.
But there were also positive aspects.
Many teachers revised their approaches to teaching, began to prepare more thoroughly for classes, and express their thoughts more systematically and clearly. The students gained time to more effectively allocate it between studying, resting and household activities. Education has become more accessible for those who find it difficult to afford to move to another city or another country. Both students and teachers began to spend less time in transport and were able to devote more time to their families. Everyone began to appreciate live communication and devote it to really important things, without wasting time on empty useless discussions.
Will the approaches of universities and MBA schools to the organization of education change after the resumption of normal life? Will we leave the online mode in teaching, or will we maintain it in some form?
It is impossible to answer this question unequivocally. Everything will depend on the experience of organizing training in each specific university / institute in covid times - how successful it was, and how convenient the online platform was for teaching.
At the same time, there are all the prerequisites to assume that most universities and MBA schools will not completely abandon online learning and will use it in a hybrid mode, building a balance between live (or conditionally live (in Zoom)) learning and the use of online platforms available in 24 x 7 mode. After all, it is quite reasonable and effective to use the online mode for many lectures, usually read for a large audience and not accompanied by close contact with students; as well as for courses in which fundamental things are set out, ignorance of which does not allow you to dive deeper into the subject area during live communication with the teacher. The online mode will also be useful for students studying in a non-native language. Indeed, in order to understand the topic, they often need to listen to a lecture more than once and have several attempts to answer test questions. Only then they will be ready to have discussions on equal conditions with their fellow students and teachers in live sessions.
Using a hybrid approach will ensure the inclusiveness of learning and increase the availability of higher education and the second education. Everyone who really wants to master new knowledge, regardless of where they live in the world, will get the opportunity to listen to and learn the best courses and lectures.
With the proper organization of hybrid learning, it will be interesting and attractive for the teaching staff. Once they have prepared and recorded a video of their course and prepared questions for students, they will be able to focus on practical exercises with those participants in the educational process who will be ready for discussions at a high professional level. This will allow to get away from the routine and make the learning process interesting and useful for everyone.
