When COVID-19 brought the world to a standstill in early 2020, schools felt its wrath overnight and few, if any, were prepared to deal with the consequences or had a ready, viable solution to such calamity. Schools and other organizations had contingencies in place for other familiar disasters. Fire and earthquake drills were almost ritual events. Regulations stipulate annual inspections of fire exits and firefighting equipment. Organizations prepared and disseminated evacuation plans detailing emergency rescue protocols, first-aid provisions, and contact details of first responders.
None dealt with COVID-19 and none especially for dealing with class disruption over an indefinite, unknown duration. The potential damage was evident the moment the lockdown took effect. Schools faced the prospect of an extended school holiday, which education experts predicted will have long term detrimental effects on learners, especially those already challenged by inadequate resources and access to basic educational materials.
The irony of this miscalculation and neglect lies in an obvious, almost go-to solution that everybody identified instantaneously as soon as the pandemic was upon the world.
Online learning, distance education, computer-based learning and other iterations of the same concept have been in public consciousness for decades, especially with the rapid advances in information technology, the Internet, and cloud-based networks. As early as the 1990’s observers noticed that these advances have outpaced adoption by academe, in spite of overwhelming evidence that these could improve learning. The advantages are well documented, foremost and most obvious being the ability of learners to access lessons and continue learning anytime, anywhere, with any device. Classrooms without walls, with students belonging to a worldwide community of learners having access to lessons with consistent quality and presentation.
There lies the problem. Schools were unprepared or were nowhere near implementing an effective online learning environment. The extent of the faculty and school administrators’ awareness consisted of a few buzzwords and acronyms, with faculty members lacking rudimentary skills in the most basic word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software. This was the situation in some schools when COVID struck.
Building an online environment involves a culture change involving new skills, attitudes, tools, technology, methods, techniques, and acceptance. It does not happen overnight, even with the most ardent and enthusiastic champion from top management. In a frantic need to act, appease their stakeholders and project a semblance of normalcy, an online learning solution was necessary, whatever the cost.
Learning management systems were the most convenient, readily available relief to the urgency of the situation, and suppliers readily installed them and conducted faculty onboarding in days. Unfortunately, an LMS is not content, and available content cannot be adapted immediately to an online delivery mode, complete with interactivity and exercises. Implementation could have been better if schools only had the luxury of time which they did not. As in everything done in haste and under duress, a deliberate, well-planned approach is impossible. By certain standards, many schools enjoyed limited success, especially if the measure is the preservation of enrollment and continuity. A poor online learning environment is better than an indefinite school holiday which could have been more damaging.
With the pandemic cooling off and schools going back to face-to-face sessions, the biggest mistake for any school to make is to forget and not learn lessons from the online learning experience. Even more disconcerting is thinking that face-to-face instruction and online learning are mutually exclusive, or that one is better than the other without considering proper context and prevailing circumstances. It may be that there are schools who have abandoned what they had in place during the pandemic, instead of improving it.
Online learning developed over time in man’s constant search for more effective and efficient ways to learn, considering learning theories that have evolved through the ages, the experience of the successful learner, the habits of highly effective teachers, most efficient and cost-effective delivery mode, learner motivation, and many other factors that make learning happen. Anytime, anywhere learning is a by-product of this modality. Disaster response is not a conscious consideration, although this capability can surmount limitations of time and space. Thus, online learning is not a sword to unsheathe at the first sign of an aggressor, or an underground shelter from an incoming tornado, or a relief for temporary inconvenience. It is a conscious strategy for improved learning for all seasons.
Online learning is not a shield against disaster but a learning strategy that does not have to wait for disruptions to happen. This is still lost on some. Recently, several transport groups threatened to stage a one-week strike hoping to disrupt normal travel and movement nationwide. Online learning was again in everybody’s consciousness and those who may have abandoned online learning after the pandemic rushed to retrieve whatever can still be used or recycled.
Missed class days due to typhoons, street floods, unscheduled, holidays, strikes and other disruptions reduce learning time. Altogether these missed class days could mean a month or more taken from the regular school calendar. It is COVID-type disruption in small doses, only that they are predictable and are as regular as Holy Week and Christmas. That could be a case for online learning to those who insist it is just a disaster relief.
