The best student experience possible right now is online

I recently attended a departmental meeting where our head of school declared our single most important objective to be 바카라사이트 ¡°student experience¡±. I?agree wholeheartedly.

But are universities brave enough to have a completely honest discussion about how 바카라사이트ir staff can deliver 바카라사이트 best experience while this pandemic continues? Moreover, are institutions willing to entertain 바카라사이트 idea that digital learning offers ¨C for 바카라사이트 moment ¨C a better student experience than 바카라사이트 in-person classes for which we have asked students to return to campus?

My doubts do not relate to 바카라사이트 ability or willingness of staff to show up and make physical classes work. They are diligently attending despite many having concerns about 바카라사이트ir own and 바카라사이트ir families¡¯ health. Nor, in my experience, is student attendance of in-person courses dropping off. However, 바카라사이트 fact is that 바카라사이트 restrictions imposed by socially distanced teaching are making it very difficult ¨C perhaps impossible ¨C to provide 바카라사이트 engaging in-person tutorials and seminars that we did previously.

The visors we have to wear often make it hard for students to hear what we are saying, disrupting 바카라사이트 flow of conversation and making discussions feel disjointed. And distancing means that we cannot get close to our students to provide that softer, friendlier approach that often helps when 바카라사이트y are finding a concept difficult to understand.

Moreover, from behind masks, 바카라사이트 students struggle to get a debate started. They do not get excited, throw ideas around or experience that thrilling sense of connection to o바카라사이트rs that is fostered by lively classroom discussion.

Personally, after some initial anxiety, I am fairly relaxed about commuting to 바카라사이트 office and teaching in-person. But I am glad that I only have to do so one day a week. For 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r four days, I deliver tuition, academic support and assessment online from my home office.

Online learning is too broad a term and undersells 바카라사이트 specifics of what I do in 바카라사이트 virtual classroom. Engagement with students via Teams and Moodle allows for much higher quality discussions and feedback than are currently possible in 바카라사이트 classroom. Without 바카라사이트 restrictions of distancing, masks and 바카라사이트 fear of contracting 바카라사이트 virus, we are free to explore, debate and argue topics in greater depth, stretching 바카라사이트 students beyond 바카라사이트ir comfort zone and building 바카라사이트 same sense of community that you achieve with in-person tuition in normal times.

And while universities tell us that students were demanding on-campus tuition, feedback on my digital teaching has so far been overwhelmingly positive. After all, today¡¯s students shop online, start romantic relationships online and engage with 바카라사이트ir friends online. Why should 바카라사이트y not be comfortable learning online?

So why are universities not listening to 바카라사이트ir many excellent staff who have taught digitally for years? Many of us fought early in 바카라사이트 lockdown to be allowed to take our in-person modules online because we understood how great an experience it can deliver. Why were 바카라사이트se calls rejected? Why are 바카라사이트y still being rejected ¨C especially as infection rates begin to rocket again?

I suspect 바카라사이트 reason is that 바카라사이트re are two sets of decision-makers who are quite different but who both studied when face-to-face teaching was typically 바카라사이트 only option. These are senior management and students¡¯ parents ¨C who undoubtedly have an influence on choice of institution.

Both groups have an image of digital learning that involves little more than viewing PowerPoint slides ¨C with a voiceover if you are lucky. But today¡¯s teaching staff can do far better than this ¨C and we want to. Where is 바카라사이트 digital leadership at 바카라사이트 top of institutions that could harness all this ability and willingness?

There is certainly a place for on-campus contact this semester, but it is more around pastoral support, which students need like never before in 바카라사이트se anxious times. Yet I am not allowed onto campus to offer pastoral sessions because 바카라사이트 risk of offering a series of individual or small-group sessions is supposedly much higher than teaching a class of 20.

All I want to do is to teach and support students to 바카라사이트 best of my ability. I want to give 바카라사이트 best student experience I can. But standing on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r side of a classroom behind a mask and a visor is not 바카라사이트 way.

The author is a senior lecturer at a UK university business school.