The COVID-19 pandemic scourging across the globe since late January is turning out to be an unprecedented challenge. Never before in the history of humanity has any threat disrupted every domain of our existence. It has attacked at the very notion of Man — The Social Animal! While the public health infrastructure of most nations is being stress-tested on a daily basis, month-long lockdowns have brought bustling economies to their knees.
The lockdown has not spared delivery of education either domestically or internationally. While institutions have moved to the virtual world, the related benefits provided by in-classroom teaching beg to tag along. Following is a look at associated challenges within the higher education domain:
The midnight transition: The lockdown has forced educational institutions to evolve their teaching methodologies from in-person lectures to e-Learning platforms almost overnight. Every stakeholder within the education domain has their task cut out for them. For students, homes have turned into schools while for parents they have turned into office cubicles.
Adequate student awareness must be imparted to ensure school time; family time do not overlap. Institutions must train students to be more adaptable in their learning approach. Thus, institutions must emphasise on the importance of teaching their students life skills like creativity, collaboration, emotional intelligence and continuous learning. At the same time, daily assignments and interactive coursework must stave off the lethargy associated with staying indoors. Educators must rise up to the challenge.
Role of Educators: While in classrooms, a lecturer can judge the involvement of students through their behaviour and accordingly adjust the delivery of a lecture. On a virtual platform though, such benefits are non-existent. Educators have to adapt against such shortcomings developing into their Achilles Heel. As Seth Godin once rightly claimed, ‘When things go digital, everything that can be measured, will get measured!’ The role of educators as effective knowledge dispensers is under scrutiny today more than ever before.
Educators must undergo regular training to ensure adequate optimisation of their efforts to benefit students. Gaining regular insights on their lecture delivery, frequent assessments to gauge the effectiveness of student learning and their ability to interact with students through technology-based media are key metrics every educator must focus upon. Thanks to the virtual platforms, today’s educators can be accessible globally.
eLearning platforms: Institutions have to quickly shortlist the eLearning platforms that fulfill their needs. Thankfully, the EdTech space has witnessed phenomenal personalisation and growth in recent years. Internationally, Learning Management Systems have been a part of the student learning process since the early 2000s. EDHEC Business School has been using the Blackboard application for almost two decades now. This has allowed the smooth transition of our students into the eLearning phase. Additionally, recent months have seen a rise in the number of students taking up online certifications in order to bolster their profiles.
Administrative concerns: The biggest losers (if I may call them so) in the current pandemic are students in the final year of their studies. By December 2019, most had earned a well-deserved internship/job offer. Unfortunately, this pandemic has cast a shadow on their post studies situation. It is disheartening to read the related posts from such students on LinkedIn. Companies have gone into a huddle. Some of them have frozen the recruitment process.
Although the governments have intervened to provide an extension on their visas owing to lockdown, they are staring at an uncertain start to their careers. It is in such times that the true test of character transpires. Industries must consider all options to accommodate the new recruits, if not as full-time employees then as interns or on a project basis.
A combined strategy in this regard will go a long way in calming nerves of our students. More so, because they have student loans to pay off! Keeping the students motivated and providing options must remain a focal point of the industry-academia combine. As for the incoming student batch, governments could decide to offer a delayed start for studies. This will make sure there is no loss of year and provide possibility of covering up the lost time either through means of e-Learning or extending the teaching hours.
With close to 1 billion students globally looking up to the combine of academia-governments-corporates, it is time to step up and devise solutions that help us beat this pandemic and emerge stronger and victorious. It is high time we shield our students from a recession, after all; they are the leaders of tomorrow.
—Nilesh Gaikwad is Country Manager India at EDHEC Business School, France. The views expressed are personal.
