The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is further proving the value of online environments. Not only have many organizations moved to remote work in order to continue their operations, but many educational institutions are also conducting courses remotely in order to maintain academic continuity.
This crisis pushed those who still had reluctance toward online teaching to give it a try. There’s a lot of potential that can come from this move. It could increase openness and the development of more online programs, which will produce a bigger boom in the online education market. It could add value to the services that instructional designers provide on college campuses, and it would be great to have instructional design services used for maximum benefit.
The consequence of this crisis response might be disastrous for the quality of online learning. If faculty rush to put courses online on their own, they run the risk of committing significant missteps. If they repeat this same approach for future development of online courses, the product could suffer. In other words, there is the potential to set a precedent for poor, hurried course design. This wouldn’t be their fault but rather an unintended consequence of ceasing on-campus class time. This is just the beginning. There are other benefits and drawbacks of the remote teaching and learning phenomenon necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- We need digital technology more than we realized
- Online education becomes the commonplace
- Forming relationships
- Risk of poor online course delivery