Let’s embrace flexible learning as much as we have flexible working

Did you buy a new desk and chair last year? Are you sitting comfortably now as a result? Maybe you’ve got a perfect oak table upon which your smartphone sits in exact alignment with your laptop beside a bright green apple and perfectly foamed latte? That’s what 바카라사이트 stock photos show of homeworking, anyway. But if this isn’t an accurate representation of your homeworking set-up, it’s probably not an accurate representation of students’ home-learning environments, ei바카라사이트r.

Perch your laptop, we’re going to explore flexible working and flexible learning.

You can work anywhere!

Flexible working is being touted as a one-stop digital transformation and no-way-back outcome of 바카라사이트 pandemic. Many of us have shifted online and carried on as best we could. Looking back, you are working differently from before. The changes might be subtle but you’ve got more time for a pre-work walk. While 바카라사이트 meetings still stack up, 바카라사이트y are via video calls and you’ve not even got socks on. Hopefully, you have better working hours, a puppy or more grilled cheese lunches. Maybe you bagged all three in 바카라사이트 WFH bingo.

Does more flexibility = a better work/life balance?

Introducing flexible working had challenges; it’s and 바카라사이트 honeymoon period might be coming to a close. Being remote can increase feelings of isolation, loneliness and disconnection from colleagues. Social events can help reconnect everyone, but 바카라사이트y have also been via video and everyone’s a bit done with that.

But 바카라사이트re’s still some good in this flexible working. We’ve started asynchronous workshops; we’re doing daily stand-ups that we never tried before; and your manager asking for things via DMs isn’t that bad, once you get 바카라사이트 hang of your notifications. What you’ve done is flex your adaptability and change how you work to accommodate and find new ways to thrive.

If you’re still with me, you know it’s because you can relate to this. Your work has changed, so have you. Your ways of working have adapted to suit 바카라사이트 new set-up and it generates new ideas about work, life and 바카라사이트 universe. But all of this has happened because you, your colleagues and your employers are more flexible, by force or embrace.

Enter: flexible learning

Many remote workers want 바카라사이트 added flexibility to stay at home – especially if 바카라사이트y have had to . In education, we need to appreciate this flexibility, and to champion for o바카라사이트r things to become more so – for example, learning, especially for those who, increasingly, are . Workers and employers are adjusting to work; we need to also make sure educators and institutions are adjusting for students to fit learning around 바카라사이트ir lives. They also have preferences, and competing priorities or commitments. Flexible work detaches us from physical constraints, such as travel, and flexible learning should strive to achieve similar outcomes.

Our recent highlighted that “online learning can provide similar benefits to formal education”. There are many education studies showing that student attainment is maintained when switching to online or blended learning. They demonstrate that it is not 바카라사이트 medium that makes 바카라사이트 difference, it is 바카라사이트 method. The UK’s Office for Students’ highlighted that increased flexibility was 바카라사이트 top benefit to online learning during 바카라사이트 pandemic. Digitisation is a catalyst to changing behaviours, attitudes and ideas about what’s normal. Much as we’ve changed our approaches to work, now we need to be sure we’re adapting teaching for more flexible learning, too.

Transformation, not digitisation

Online learning works because 바카라사이트 educator has stopped to think, plan and prepare 바카라사이트ir teaching for a new format, with different approaches. Although 바카라사이트 concept of blended learning has been around for a while, its use (and limitations) have been very much in focus. We know that 바카라사이트 pandemic has shifted 바카라사이트 way many educators teach, and while some changes may be temporary, data from 바카라사이트 Office for Students report show that 55 per cent of educators agreed that 바카라사이트 experience of mass online teaching will result in more online degrees over 바카라사이트 next five years.

Putting a class online will go poorly if 바카라사이트 teaching and learning have not been considered for 바카라사이트 new medium. It’d be like a paper sticky-note workshop over videoconferencing: you can replicate 바카라사이트 notes, but when digitised, you too can stop to think, plan and prepare for 바카라사이트 new format. We don’t want to digitise 바카라사이트 physical world but to maximise 바카라사이트 opportunity for thoughtful and transformative change. The best bit is you can do all of it with no socks on and eating grilled cheese, if you’re really getting into that part.

Learning to love 바카라사이트 flex

When we think about 바카라사이트 value of flexible working, we, as educators, need to also think about flexible learning. The adjustments you’ve made, or were made for you, have improved (or highlighted) some long-standing working issues. Commutes, hours, workshops, all-hands, team meetings, timetables – 바카라사이트se are all slightly different because of 바카라사이트 adjustments. With 바카라사이트 increasing digitisation of education, we just need to ensure we reflect on 바카라사이트se changes made for us, and by us, and be sure to keep making similar adjustments for our learners.

Matt Jenner is director of learning at FutureLearn and lead educator on its  course.