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As the covid-19 pandemic has shown, the possibility of fulfilling some of the professional duties in the on-line system is possible. Technical solutions introduced for the purposes of distance learning could be successfully used in the period beyond the pandemic. Parents returning from maternity or paternity leave, people caring for family members requiring help, people with disabilities could be able to carry out at least some of the classes online. An important issue here would be to leave such people a choice whether they want to take advantage of such a privilege or prefer traditional solutions.
I certainly agree with your point. Online lectures should go hand in hand with in-presence mode.
As a matter of fact many universities in Italy are responding to the impossibility to have the same number of students as before in a classroom by installing streaming tools for theoretical courses.
It would be great if one could choose his/her learning modeI agree with the above. The available technologies enable to have active participation in classes in on-line lectures. The classes on place should be organized when practical cases that need physical attendance are conducted.
I agree with letting people choose between attending in person or online. However, from the perspective of a professor, I do believe online teaching can be more challenging, especially for mothers who teach in the afternoons/nights once the school is over and have to sometimes interrupt their professional activity to attend their domestic responsibilities.
I also believe the pandemic has made people more prone to staying home and I think staying home too much can be a detrimental to our physical and mental health (we connect less with the outside world, we exercise less, we socialize less, we become more sedentary…). In the end, not separating the work space from the home space can be harmful and negatively affect our productivity and our ability to absorb knowledge. And spending most of our time in front of a screen is not great for professors or students.
Having said that, I do believe that educational institutions should offer accommodation for students with difficulties (mothers, fathers, caretakers, people who have jobs on top of being students, people with disabilities, etc.), but I can’t help but see the contradictions it entails.
I love the idea of online-lectures (not necessarily always on-line classes). However, it is important to check who owns recorded materials, and make sure that authors (lecturers) are properly rewarded. In the course I teach now, there are pre-recorded lecture materials, which are all about knowledge / information. There is also every week a short (maximum one hour) life lecture by the professor (course convenor), which is a very short summary of the lecture and week’s activities for students. There are also answers given to questions asked by students, either before (on special forum) or during the lecture (via chat). There is also one class (in person) per week, with one group delivered online (for few international students who were not yet able to move to UK and for those who could not attend in person due to covid or other reasons). I find that formula very inclusive, and also responding to diversified needs of students. I think that for very large courses (>200 students) with many class groups keeping one class online can be very useful and possibly allow some disabled students to attend.
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