Online pivot & the absence of a magic button - The Ed Techie - 1 views
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Now we’re getting into the online pivot more substantially, higher education institutions are coming to terms it may not be a short-term emergency shift. It looks like the first semester of the 2020-21 year may be online, and if Covid-19 flares up again, who knows how long it may continue. While you could get away with “sticking classes on Zoom” for the immediate emergency, that won’t cut it in the medium term.
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The good news is that it is entirely possible to create good, online courses in just about any subject, and students will do well in them and their performance and long term understanding of the topics will be as good, if not better, than those taught face to face. So that’s the good news, higher education isn’t going to die.
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It is not cheapIt is not quickYou need to invest in building up your own staff expertiseIt will bring additional problems that you didn’t have beforeStudents will need different types of support
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the main issue here is the cut in academic staff and the outsourcing of expertise. Invest in your staff.
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a better solution is to invest in staff (and here institutions might want to get expertise in to help), use OER for content, and make strategic decisions that have as their basis the belief that online, distance ed is a useful, valid form of education.