As we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, institutions are riding a professional development wave that is unprecedented. With the newly learned — or expanded and refreshed — tech skills many faculty now bring to their work, these institutions are uniquely positioned to roll out the blended learning strategies students prefer.
Jennifer Mattes, Ph.D
When the COVID-19 pandemic closed colleges, universities, and K-12 schools in the United States and around the world, many students and faculty who had yet to experience online or blended learning were suddenly thrust into the emergency remote learning environment through pure necessity. And while in many cases the swift change wasn’t ideal, it opened many eyes to the potential of what quality online learning can do to provide a viable alternative to the traditional in-person classroom model.
Prior to the pandemic, most institutions had some form of online learning available to students, although it varied widely from just a few classes to entire fields of study. However, there were many faculty that previously avoided online teaching for many reasons, often because of a perceived difference in quality between traditional on-campus and online educational experiences.
As we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, though, institutions are riding a professional development wave that is unprecedented. With the newly learned — or expanded and refreshed — tech skills many faculty now bring to their work, these institutions are uniquely positioned to roll out the blended learning strategies students prefer.
In fact, the 2021 Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report noted that 80 percent of chief online learning officers expect their online enrollments to grow in the next three to five years. This data indicates more people may now realize the promise and value of online education as a result of the pandemic, bringing so many together in the experience of rethinking their teaching practices with distance as a requirement.
The highest quality online education
At the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), we believe that online learning can be a valuable avenue to educational access for those who may not otherwise be able to engage in the face-to-face campus experience. Our mission is to provide training, research, best practices, and other resources to help institutions and individual faculty develop the skills necessary to provide the highest quality online learning experiences.
And while nearly all students stand to benefit from more blended learning opportunities, this is particularly great news for adult learners who may find the traditional classroom setting difficult or impossible to navigate. Blended and online learning offer options that simply don’t exist in the in-person-only classroom setting, including an innate flexibility in scheduling; access; student-to-student, student-to-content, and student-to-instructor interaction; and more.
Online and blended learning allows these students to complete assignments, review course materials, and engage with learning content when it’s convenient for them, rather than at assigned or pre-determined times. And when course lectures are provided via pre-recorded video or audio, students can go back and review important content in ways they never could before.
Leading with online
We should be clear, too, that when we talk about online and blended learning in this context, this is referring to courses that lead with an online-first strategy, featuring research-based best practices for teaching and learning in the online space, not the endless Zoom calls that attempt to recreate the in-person classroom experience.
But online learning isn’t without its potential pitfalls. Equal access to technology can be a huge barrier for many students, particularly those in less affluent areas or areas with limited internet capabilities. For true equity to occur, these barriers must be addressed in a way that ensures all students have access to the resources they need to succeed.
Online and blended learning provide new opportunities to engage students where they are and where they prefer to be, rather than enforcing often outdated and exclusionary ideas of how quality education takes place. With proper examination and practice of sound and research-backed online educational methods, students can experience education that more readily fits their needs and desires, while providing the high-quality education experience we expect from our learning institutions.
