From the university's early days experimenting with teaching via the Internet, the goal has been to replicate the real classroom experience as closely as possible. After all, face-to-face was considered the norm, but questions were raised about whether it could be faithfully replicated online.
But after the COVID-19 pandemic forced instructors around the world to try teaching online, something unexpected happened. Professors have discovered that there are ways to teach online that are more effective than what can be done within the confines of a physical classroom. Now that campuses are free from pandemic restrictions, many instructors are trying to incorporate these remote practices into their in-person teaching.
In fact, this phenomenon happened even before the pandemic. Even in 2001, an in-depth study of the State University of New York's online teaching efforts reported that most faculty who taught remotely found that the skills they discovered online had a positive impact on their on-campus teaching when they returned to the classroom. In fact, numerous studies over the past 20 years have shown that online education makes professors better teachers in the classroom. A 2009 study found that “faculty should be trained in distance learning methods and techniques and encouraged to use online instruction instead of in the classroom.”
This is a message I have been debating for some time. But now that so many educators and students have experienced the online format first-hand, these stories seem to be falling out.
Now is the time to fully embrace how online technology can improve the physical classroom.
Activating learning
Students in particular seem to be enamored with the advantages of technology they encounter during online learning. A recent Titan Partners survey found that students are eager to engage in on-campus courses that include digitally embedded practice problems. Students significantly preferred hybrid options and preferred digital course materials over printed textbooks.
“The online experience has changed students’ expectations, especially about the classroom,” says Whitney Kilgore, chief academic officer at iDesign, a higher education services provider specializing in instructional design. “Many of them are busy adults who don’t want to waste time.”
After teaching online during the pandemic, many effective faculty have recognized that students like the option to watch lecture videos if they miss a lecture or want to rewatch a section for review. And this has led more professors to experiment with flipped classrooms, which allow students to record short lecture videos that they ask students to watch as homework, leaving more class time for more active learning, such as group work.
My experience teaching at The New School, a small college in Manhattan, supports this style of teaching. Each week, I assigned several lectures that I had previously recorded on video. Then, in real time, the students and I engaged in an extensive discussion about the topics covered in the recording. During class time, I was not given any time to lecture.
When face-to-face professors adopt online pedagogies, classrooms transform into “blended” experiences that move from traditional learning to active learning. And this helps students move from passive participants to participants in their own intellectual journey.
Other industries have experienced a similar history as new technologies emerge. Think back to the fierce battle between film and television in the 1950s. At the time, Hollywood worried that TV would put it out of business. Today's streaming services have led to an unexpected blurring of the lines between film and TV, with less interest in which medium is more authentic or 'better'.
These days, similar attitudes are changing when it comes to education.
“Face-to-face classes are no longer the norm,” says Steven Goss, chair of the Management and Technology in Business program at New York University School of Continuing Studies, where he teaches blended courses. “Faculty who say, ‘I only teach on campus,’ are doing themselves a disservice. “Teachers who are not thinking about diversity in how they teach are not thinking about their full capabilities.”