Cast your mind back to October 2019, when Covid-19 was for all intents and purposes barely a shadow on the horizon, and it’s hard to believe the chasms that have been leapt in these last 12 months.
The pandemic has reprioritised what we need from technology. Whereas perhaps a year ago, organisations were investigating ways to use technology to enable students to make the most of life on campus the opposite is now required: engagement must be maintained, but with physical distance.
Over the last six months, video technology, in particular, has really evolved and become much more the norm for delivery of teaching and learning. But despite the phenomenal job done by education organisations across the country to maintain contact with students and quickly shift to online delivery, there are already further developments in place.
This is where the virtual classroom newly unveiled at Weston College comes in. Not just a way to facilitate video conferencing, it’s a holistic approach that aims to allow students and staff to fully engage with one another in real-time, while in different locations. Teachers can engage with students via video link on a bank of multiple screens, as cameras allow for eye-to-eye contact, and virtual classroom software gives full control to the teacher over resources.
Online delivery is here to stay. Blended approaches, with a mix of in-person and online delivery, is quickly becoming the obvious choice for the future, even when students are able to safely attend campus. But it is the human element of teaching that is essential to nurture and seems easily overshadowed by technology. There is also a very real danger of “Zoom fatigue”. Despite the name, it is not, of course, exclusive to that particular video conferencing platform, but demonstrates how hard it is being glued to a screen for hours at a time.
A real connection
By designing a virtual environment that takes advantage of digital technology, we can provide a remote, real-time connection between teachers and students. This environment takes cues from the way humans naturally interact, both through speech and body language, and allows for a future that combines the best of both worlds to offer a safe, productive learning environment. The underlying infrastructure also sits in the cloud, which means institutions don’t have to worry about hosting weighty programs, or asking students to download software.
There is also scope for this technology to benefit institutions far beyond the current pandemic. If the experience is good, there is no reason why the virtual classroom can’t be developed long into the future. It even presents opportunities to enable transnational education, and to open up institutions to expertise far outside their geographic locale. Further and higher education providers could realistically establish branches of their institutions in other countries and attract students from all over the world.
Facing the unknown
Nobody knows for certain what life - and education - will look like in a year’s time, let alone in 10 years. But there are some good ideas, and the virtual classroom just goes to show that, with innovation and investment, these ideas can be realised. The education sector is adapting to the times, and the times will continue to change. Education is nothing if not an iterative process, and this is just the latest in a long line of technology-enhanced changes. Watch this space.
Simon Farr is the director of innovation at Jisc
Read more about Weston College’s virtual classroom journey and how your organisation can leverage the power of technology to thrive in the ‘new normal’ on the Jisc website.
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