Tectonic changes occur in society and business as unforeseen events lead to extensive experimentation around a new idea. For example, when American men went to war during World War II women proved that they were willing to do "men's work", and did it well. Despite that, people never looked back. Similarly, the Y2 K issue called for the widespread use of Indian software engineers, thus tricking job-based U.S. visas. Fixing this bug allowed Indian engineers to identify themselves and catapult them world leaders to tackle as technology issues. Today's Indian-born engineers are all headed by Alphabet, Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe. At the moment, the Pandemic of Coronavirus is driving worldwide remote education studies. The crisis will change many aspects of life. There are a lot of indicators. Education could be one of them if distant education is good. But how are we going to know if it is? When the crisis-led experiment begins, the following three questions on the business model of higher education and the accessibility of high-quality college learning are gathered and answered.
Do students need a residential experience of four years?
To order to answer this question, we need to consider which parts of the existing four- year model can be replaced, which components can be added and which components are complemented by digital technology.
In principle, lectures requiring minimal personalization or human interaction can be captured in multimedia lectures, which students can watch at their own paces. For instance, a non-university professor can easily offer these commoditized parts of the curriculum; teaching Pythagorean theorem is almost the same in the world. For these courses, technology platforms can deliver content to very broad audiences at a low cost without sacrificing a social experience without one of the important advantages of face-to-face (F2F) courses.
By removing funding from commoditized classes, schools will have more flexibility to pursue research-based training, personal problem-solving and mentorship. The students now have more money at their fingertips as they don't have to live at campuses and spend four full years. They will take commoditized courses online at a much cheaper price. You can use precious time on campuses, which cannot be done remotely, for voting, classes, faculty, interactions or professional guidance. Therefore, campuses will promote social networking, on-the-spot ventures and global learning expeditions – which include F2F commitments. This is a hybrid educational model which is capable of making university education accessible for all.
Could we move to a hybrid model, however? We are about to learn. We 're about to learn. Not only is it the students who take classes online, but even the teachers also have to teach them from home now. The same students and teachers who met for the same courses until a few weeks ago now try alternative methods. All sides can, therefore, equate their F2F experiences with remote experiences, and everything else is equivalent.
The current experiment will show students, teachers and university administrators which classes are taught from a distance and which are not so well undertaken. Chat rooms that facilitate anonymous discussions on technological issues, training design, course delivery and assessment methods should be maintained. Such data points will affect future decisions as to when and why some classes need to be taught remotely, which classes need to stay on campus and which classes on campus need to be replaced or augmented by technology.
How do IT infrastructure improvements need to make it more suitable for online education?
As many of us with day planning to graduate as a list of virtual meetings, software and software challenges are important for remote learning to take off. It is clear to us that new technology can be implemented (mobile, cloud, AI, etc.) but we know that a lot more needs to be accomplished. Bandwidth efficiency and physical inequalities have to be discussed on the hardware side. The F2F sets many differences, because students in the same class receive the same performance. The digital divide is however exacerbated by online education. Rich students have state-of-the-art computers, greater bandwidths, more reliable WiFi and advanced audiovisual tools.
Conference call software may be a good start, but some key features, such as the accommodation of large class size and the personalization of your experience, cannot be managed. Even an instructor can feel how students understand concepts in a 1000-student classroom and can adjust the speed of teaching accordingly. A student will tell whether he asks too many questions and delays the whole class. Was our technology sufficient to take these characteristics practically into account? What is to be built further? Teachers and students have to remember, address and promote technical advancement in these fields.
Online courses may require on-site educational support: instructional designers, trainers and coaches to ensure that students understand and complete their courses. There is also a digital divide between universities, which is evident in today's experiment. In comparison to hungry public universities, high-private University has better IT infrastructure and higher IT support staff ratio.
Why do faculty and students need the training to encourage improvements in thought and behaviour?
Not all faculty members are comfortable with virtual classrooms, and amongst those who have used simple audiovisual tools, rely on blackboards and flipcharts and younger faculty are knowledgeable and capable of modern technologies, a digital divide exists. In the coming weeks, students from around the nation will learn that many instructors do not receive training in multimedia presentations with comprehensive graphs and graphics. College and university will take this opportunity to review the training required to provide a smooth experience.
There are also a variety of issues with online courses for graduates. The commitment to the university calendar forces them to complete a course, rather than to forever delay it. And they feel online because they are not part of a peer group or college class that instils a sense of competitiveness in real life, inspiring others to succeed. Everything performed online suffers from several activities, from updating e-mails, chatting with friends and searching the Web during online lectures. We are parents and teachers; that's true, we know.
Can such mentalities alter? Right now we're running research and error tests (necessarily because of social distance). In the midst of the teaching semesters, teachers and students are readjusting and recalibrating. As courses are taught, the curriculum and the course contents are revised. Evaluation methods, like examinations and tests, are converted into online submissions. University managers and student bodies are welcoming and encourage teachers, with such a limited time, to innovate their own best course. Teachers, students and university administrators should all discuss how teaching and learning change from day 1 to day X. This gives insight into how potential virtual educators and learners can be educated.
A Big Experiment
A global experiment was forcing us to explore the gap between the service suite of a residential university and cost-effectiveness of an online provider such as Coursera, which could undermine the constant coronavirus pandemic. Several years ago analysts forecasted the killing of a F2F college education by the Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, and edX, as also the killing of digital technology from mobile operators and tour operators. Nevertheless, up to now, F2F university education has remained a time test.
The recent test could demonstrate that F2F university education for four years can no longer rest on its laurels. Several factors – especially the rapidly increasing cost of tuition for most families, already beyond control, suggest that the post-secondary sector is ready for disruption. This may be the only disruption in the coronavirus crisis. Whether we assess, document and interpret our answers now will decide if online learning is an option for the future and how it is created. This experiment will also enrich U.S. politics. Many politicians promised free education at universities; what if this experiment shows that college education has no person who has to bankrupt?
Was it best that all students return to the classroom after the crisis has subsided and the status quo continues? Or are we going to find a better choice?
