‘A “very large proportion” of university students do not like online learning and “do not wish to ever experience it again”’ - interesting report from Australia and one that shouldn’t surprise us...1/ https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/02/up-to-50-of-university-students-unhappy-with-online-learning-regulator-finds

I would not be surprised to see something similar for the UK...why? Well a number of points...2/

1. No university could be prepared for a global pandemic...this immediately puts you on the back foot...3/

2. Universities were not systemically setup to be able to provide online education of the best quality...to do so involves wholesale organisational change...not possible either in a short period of time...and not possible to commit to as a permanent direction of travel...4/

3. A global pandemic has a huge impact on people..the people who study, the people who teach, the people who support, all people....this hugely contributes towards what you’re able to achieve...switching from one model to another that is fundamentally different is a..5/

..gargantuan task...in public discourse there’s not been enough acknowledgement of this...the current model is neither on-campus or online...it is a whole other thing it’s still ‘emergency remote teaching’....6/

...4. From the point of view of a student you are not getting the experience you hoped for...if you combine this with an educator that through no fault of their own is not experienced in teaching online and finding their way - then it’s not the best match for satisfaction!...7/

...5. The technology available in Universities is far from optimal in terms of its affordances to offer a desirable online learning and teaching experience...as it’s mainly been an under utilised, under prioritised adjunct to an on-campus model...8/

...6. Academic teaching support roles were limited and therefore unable to support the shift at scale, those roles were also primarily about the on-campus model, meaning that even within that sphere online learning had a degree of unfamiliarity. There’s also not a strong..9/

...culture of collaboration there across institutions..so you could’ve had a 1,000 leaning designers, but it doesn’t mean to say that they would be drawn upon...10/

...there are of course many other factors... back in March I mentioned I was worried about the unintended consequences of quickly scaling online provision and that it sets a low benchmark for online education - mentioned it here https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/personal-learner-budgets-coronavirus/id1107282759?i=1000467486868 (10:03 onwards)...11/

This isn’t really about whether online education is effective or not, it’s representative of a bad situation with multi-varied factors contributing to it...online education is still a fantastic way to learn...but this is isn’t online education as much as it’s not campus based.