As institutions look to incorporate digital solutions into their long-term strategies, they will need to carefully consider input from students, academics and industry
The Covid-19 pandemic forced many higher education institutions to move online in a matter of weeks or even days. As campuses tentatively re-open, it’s an opportune moment to ask what lessons have been learned from the shift to digital learning. During a panel discussion at THE Campus Live UK&IE, held in partnership with Insendi, experts from academia and industry came together to consider the best ways to incorporate digital solutions in long-term strategies.
While a significant proportion of students recognise the benefits of online learning, it remains to be seen whether universities will seize this opportunity and increase their capabilities in the digital space. While the pandemic forced institutions out of their comfort zones, now is the time for refinement.
“It’s worth noting that when we transitioned online, it was out of necessity. The quality was varied,” said Tayyeb Shah, deputy-vice-chancellor of global partnerships at the University of Western Australia. “We are now moving towards ‘online by design’. The reality is that most learning will be hybrid, so institutions need to look strategically at how to embrace this change. Research-intensive universities, in particular, cannot simply take campus learning and move it online. It has to be built from the bottom up.”
“Collaboration between academia and industry will be hugely important,” explained Neville Wylie, deputy principal of internationalisation and professor of international history at the University of Stirling. “Online learning gives institutions the opportunity to bolt-on working with industry in new ways. The division between online and traditional offerings has been smoothed out. There is now an appetite to engage with edtech companies to develop the expertise required to deliver digital tools more effectively.”
David LeFevre, director of the Edtech Lab at Imperial College London, agreed. “We need firms like insendi and others to improve the student experience,” he said. “As a sector, we have to engage further with edtech firms. While the pandemic made institutions use technology more, this didn’t extend far beyond Microsoft Teams in most cases. We need to encourage all edtech firms to grow and prosper or we’ll be stuck with the existing technology ecosystem.”
Pre-Covid, online learning programmes were fairly rudimentary but now user requirements have become more sophisticated – especially in relation to the student experience. This begs the question of what role the campus will play as universities continue to evolve.
“Undergrads largely want to return to campus, but the post-grad space will be interesting,” LeFevre said. “Why do students and academics need to be face-to-face? Will campuses end up being more like WeWork spaces?”
“It’s important to remember that students come to campus for more than just face-to-face teaching; it’s also for social gatherings,” Wylie said. “The challenge will be meeting this expectation.”
“It’s about having flexible spaces,” Shah added. “Some universities are being more radical and are talking about removing lectures entirely. But we need to listen to our student voices before we do anything too drastic.”
While digital tools proved hugely supportive at the height of the Covid crisis, they are now prompting as many questions as answers for higher education institutions. These centre on issues like lifelong learning, international recruitment, marketing, degree pricing and more.
“All the capability we built up during the pandemic was not about developing a long-term future,” LeFevre said. “Creating that future will require significant input from universities in terms of new job roles, new business models and new expertise. We know people are exhausted. Can the sector seize the vision for the future?”
The panel:
- David LeFevre, director of the Edtech Lab, Imperial College London
- Tayyeb Shah, deputy-vice-chancellor of global partnerships, University of Western Australia
- Ashton Wenborn, special projects deputy editor, Times Higher Education (chair)
- Neville Wylie, deputy principal of internationalisation and professor of international history, University of Stirling
Watch the session on demand above or on the THE Connect YouTube channel.
Find out more about insendi.
