1. Online education already outstrips all other training and teaching modalities in terms of reach and student engagement. In almost every training and learning niche, online learning already plays a significant, often leading role. This will only increase over time.
2. Academic education has been a little slower on the uptake of online learning than other strands of education of education and training. Nonetheless, online academic learning has seen immense growth across the planet over the last five years. 2020 has obviously accelerated this. There are two options for academic educators: get on board and embrace the changes, or stay in the 20th century.
3. Online private initiatives in education and online private tutors have never been more essential. In 2020 thousands of tutors up and down the country and across the world provided vital education to many students who otherwise would have had no teaching for over six months.
4. A blended face-to-face/online approach represents the future of a sizeable segment of higher education. University education is ripe for change: it is too costly, and simply does not offer enough value for students. This blending process has already begun and will spread in coming years.
5. The era is beginning in which competitive and selective ‘Online Only’ University courses will become widely-recognised and fully accredited at both undergraduate and graduate level. This will offer many advantages to students, particularly who miss the 18-21 window and those with families and existing work commitments. For this reason, fully accredited online degrees will play a role in opening up higher education across age-ranges and increasing social mobility.
6. Right now, humanities degrees are too high-cost relative to the cost of delivery. Online education can play a major role in changing this. An inspiring and rigorous humanities and languages education can be delivered in a blended format at a much more competitive cost.
7. With the changes that are on the horizon in terms of teaching delivery, it seems increasingly rational to divide more Universities up into research institutions and teaching institutions. Academics would get greater ability to focus totally on research and students would get more dedicated teaching provision.
8. 2020 has highlighted the difference between the state and private sector in secondary education. As far as I can see, the biggest difference is not resources, but the mentality and structure of the leadership. Given precisely the same situation to deal with, the private sector responded swiftly and effectively, providing a full online learning schedule within a week of schools closing.
9. 2020 has accelerated the incorporation of real online delivery into mainstream academic learning. In the last nine months the adoption and acceptance of online teaching and learning modalities have progressed five-to-ten years.
10. There is a need for some standardised teaching and tuition training programs for online teaching and tuition. Online teaching is an art that takes some time to develop. For those new to the approach, a standardised course of training would be useful. For advanced practitioners, cutting-edge courses and workshops would advance the practice.
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