Six months ago, few of the world’s academics had taught an online class. Now they’re almost all doing it. I asked dozens of them about their experiences. My conclusion: online education won’t replace the in-person variety, but will complement it.
University teaching after the pandemic will be blended: a mix of both methods. That could revolutionise universities, help them survive the economic crisis and bring higher education to tens of millions of people who have never set foot on campus.
Most academics I heard from aren’t enjoying teaching online. They plunged into the global experiment untrained, to a backdrop of children at home, poor WiFi and lockdown anxiety. Some students in online classes are embarrassed by their homes, or are struggling to follow PowerPoint presentations on mobile phones.