Learning to Learn in a Post-Pandemic World

Why College Education Will Never Be the Same Again

Flannery Wilson
The Humanities in Transition
4 min readApr 24, 2021

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A traditional college campus
Not everyone is lucky enough to attend Yale.

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.

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The Humanities in Transition
The Humanities in Transition

Published in The Humanities in Transition

HiT — an interdisciplinary journal that publishes papers on a rolling basis — is a digital platform to discuss the effects of the humanities being in a constant state of change.

Flannery Wilson
Flannery Wilson

Written by Flannery Wilson

Flannery has a PhD in Comparative Literature. She teaches French, Italian, and visual media. She has developed a love for improv comedy and performs regularly.