Robert Phillips is a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.

The Shift to Online Learning During the Pandemic

Prior to the pandemic, digital teaching accounted for less than 5 per cent of university courses, mainly confined to professional development. Hence, there was a lot for lecturers (and students) to learn when we were suddenly plunged into lockdown in early 2020.

Mass experimentation quickly exposed us to the pros and cons of synchronous versus asynchronous teaching. We found that synchronous was better for interaction with students but was sometimes painfully reliant on internet connections. Some students would have to attend lectures late at night or early in the morning if they were elsewhere in the world. Asynchronous, allowed the student to work when convenient – on content that lecturers had time to perfect – but at the risk of feeling remote, with implications for their mental health.

The perception among students was that online teaching was lower quality than in-person teaching – and many lecturers reacted to this by overloading their course sites with extra reading material, videos and quizzes to compensate, increasing the student’s workload considerably.

Why Hybrid Teaching Still Matters

However, despite being back in the classroom, there is still a case for continuing to broadcast our lectures live as well. Firstly, such a hybrid approach is making university life more inclusive for those with a physical disability. Travelling into university can be difficult and stressful for them, and things are not often ideal on campus either; a survey of disabled students published by Disabled Students UK in October 2020 suggested that there is “clear room for improvement”. But the same survey revealed that online lecture recordings were being positively received, with 70 per cent of respondents regarding them as more accessible than face-to-face teaching and 84 per cent saying they would benefit from online learning going forward. Keeping some lectures online as well as in person might allow those students to target their physical attendance where the benefit it is greatest, such as interactive seminars or practical classes.

Meanwhile, introverted students and non-native speakers may prefer to use the online chat function to ask their questions, rather than asking them verbally from the audience. And digital broadcasts could be very useful for students who become prevented by political circumstances from arriving on time to take up study at Manchester.

Reducing the need for students to commute to campus may also be financially helpful to them in this time of high inflation, as well as environmentally more sustainable. The digital option may even give students the option of commuting from home once or twice a week, rather than paying for halls of residence. And reducing demand for large lecture theatres could ease universities’ timetabling headaches as student numbers increase.

Challenges and Considerations for the Future

Some argue that hybrid lecturing reduces attendance at the physical lecture, but low attendance is not a new problem. A range of pre-pandemic studies showed that without artificial mechanisms for encouraging attendance (such as marks for attendance or promises of exam hints), attendance rates of between 38 per cent and 44 per cent were normal. And a 2019 study by Advance HE suggested that only 46 per cent of UK undergraduates were committing 11 hours or more to classes per week, following a steady decline. The widespread adoption of podcasting lectures pre-pandemic led to a similar debate about whether it was affecting attendance or achievement. The data were mixed. Many studies show that there is little difference in academic performance between those who attend lectures and those who access the material remotely, although it seems that the very highest marks are gained by those attending every week.

Some reasons that students have recently given for not attending physical lectures seem understandable: the increasing need for part-time paid work, travel time and cost, caring responsibilities, or the time required to complete other university assignments. Other time-honoured excuses were less legitimate, such as lectures being scheduled too early in the morning. Either way, we do need to take care that non-attendance isn’t indicative of deeper problems – but, interestingly, a recent report by the UK’s Office for National Statistics found that 78 per cent of people working from home feel that they now have a better work-life balance: this could also apply to students.

Teaching both online and face-to-face simultaneously does, of course, add a layer of complexity to a lecture. Preparatory tasks such as putting online students into breakout groups take extra time, and, when lecturing, you need a higher level of alertness to watch out for comments appearing on the online chat function. Ensuring that you are sharing the correct screen with those online can also be quite strenuous and tiring.

But I suggest that we have a duty to make teaching accessible to as many students as possible. So – if your IT facilities allow – it might be good to carry on with both formats for the time being.

Further reading

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/lets-not-toss-away-our-hard-won-digital-teaching-expertise

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