Learning to Learn in a Post-Pandemic World
Why College Education Will Never Be the Same Again
According to current data from Insidehighered.com, if you were to ask a decent number of randomly-chosen professors on any college campus whether they believe that in-person learning is superior to online learning, over half of them would say “yes.”
If you asked me that same question, I would answer: “I’m not so sure anymore.”
I used to be convinced that nothing could replace the traditional college classroom experience. Now I am convinced that the shift to online learning was necessary.
In fact, I propose that online learning actually equalizes students and discourages bad teaching. I propose furthermore that in order to remain relevant, colleges and universities will need to define a future in which online learning is the norm.
Even in a post-pandemic world, students will continue to want to learn more efficiently and on their own schedules.
Before the pandemic struck, I was driving one and a half hours each way — for a total of 6 hours every week — to teach my French 1 class at San Bernardino Valley College.