Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

COVID-19 has affected educators around the world. Read on to learn how COVID-19 has pushed education toward 21st century pedagogy.

COVID-19 created a frenzied dash to online learning and a new interest in Instructional Design and online practices. Throughout this process and despite the rush, instructors were interested and invested in exploring design elements, pedagogy, methodology, and best practices. What followed were many wonderful opportunities to discuss and tease out the principles of online andragogy and pedagogy (from here on referred together as “pedagogy”) that are important not only for online teaching but for the reality of teaching students in any modality in the 21st century.

When hundreds of spring and summer undergraduate courses were abruptly moved from onsite to online delivery in the wake of COVID-19, several faculty and students nationwide reacted with panic and uncertainty. Currently, instructors are busy preparing for the 2020-2021 academic year where several students will continue taking courses online. At my institution, fall academic courses will be primarily virtual (along with several others across the nation), with some in-person and hybrid instruction for performance-based, clinical, and laboratory courses, and some students living on campus.

Christopher Cox predicts the significant ways academic libraries will shift in terms of collections, services, spaces and operations as a result of the pandemic.

In this guest post, Hossam Kassem from the Open University (OU) presents the first in a series of case studies compiled by Jane Secker and Sarah Pavey from the CILIP Information Literacy Group to illustrate how different institutions have shifted their information literacy teaching online as part of the response to the COIVD-19 pandemic. 

A recent survey found that the coronavirus pandemic has been challenging for teachers, parents and students alike. Many teachers and parents are concerned about their children’s progress, wellbeing, and finding relevant resources. Students said their main worry was being easily distracted, less motivated, and less effective at studying. Furthermore, students were yearning for daily social interaction and struggling with absence of an in-person teacher. How can educational technology help bridge the gap between all of these concerns? Is it possible to create a distraction-free “learning zone”, and find a balance between play, rest, and work each day?

“If you build it, they will come”

This quote from 80s baseball film Field of Dreams is how I feel about school libraries! My own school, a large independent secondary day school in West London, has a well-funded, well-staffed library. In the current crisis, access to quality information and to books and recreational reading has never been more important for students.

Amid talk of pandemics and economics, it may seem like a comparatively minor discussion to have: the difference between remote learning and online learning. 

But, with COVID-19 forcing schools around the nation to move their classrooms online and more and more scrutiny leveled at the sustainability of doing so, it’s a conversation that education experts increasingly insist should happen. Making the distinction, some say, could shape the future of online learning for years to come. 

As schools settle into more sustained use of online learning tools, attention needs to be paid to teachers’ development and resource needs as well as their students’, writes Patrick Roach

It now seems like a lifetime ago that the majority of children and young people’s learning took place at school. The speed and scale of the Coronavirus crisis meant that virtually overnight living rooms, kitchens, sheds and bedrooms have been repurposed as places of both learning and teaching.

For the majority of schools this has meant a sudden and abrupt shift to delivering the majority of learning online. For some schools this will have been easier than others.

First year students at UK universities will be imminently beginning some kind of an on-campus experience this year. It will be unlike anything they, or staff working in HEI,s have ever experienced.

Many anticipate that we may have only a month or so to help them bed in before a second wave causes furthers local or national lockdowns, so it’s imperative we get this first engagement right. I propose there are five areas we have to work on immediately to help freshers feel they have become part of our learning communities, before reversion to online learning becomes highly likely. If all of us Cassandras are wrong (and we must hope so!), this is still good practice for welcoming students whose 2020 pre-HE learning experiences are likely to have been grim.

With careful planning, universities and colleges do not have to sacrifice quality instruction during remote learning.

Although colleges and universities face many unknowns in the upcoming semester, one thing is certain: Online learning is here to stay, regardless of whether your institution is planning to reopen campuses or not.

From a second wave of COVID-19 to sweeping protests across the nation, there is a growing list of unpredictable factors that can uproot a school year. It is critical that higher education institutions have the capacity to make smooth transitions to online learning at a moment’s notice.

This blog was kindly contributed by Dr David LeFevre, Director of the EdTech Lab at Imperial College and the founder of higher education platform company Insendi, part of Study Group.

Last month a subtle warning shot was shot across the bows of universities still struggling to manage the disruption caused by Covid-19. When the Minister responsible for higher education announced that UK students would be charged full tuition fees for online study, she added a caveat – the assumption of quality. If students ‘feel that the quality isn’t there’ she said, ‘there are processes that they can follow’ to seek redress’.

A major challenge at the moment, especially for teachers, but also translated to students, is keeping up with the curriculum. This limits the possibility of allowing students to learn on their own and finding their own path of learning. This period could be a window of opportunity in personalised learning, in finding students finding "their own pathway." How do you create a balance?

The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically upended traditional schooling and made remote learning the “new normal.” Teachers are scrambling to offer some form of continuing education using virtual technologies, with the recognition that traditional approaches to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading must be altered. While it might be more expedient to present online lessons, electronic worksheets, and resource packets, we propose that the learn-at-home circumstance offers an opportunity to present students with more engaging and meaningful learning experiences. More specifically, we recommend providing students with assignments and tasks that challenge them to find information from various sources, critically appraise what they find, and use what they learn to address interesting issues and genuine problems.

In early April, Carolyn Evans watched from her mom’s couch as gay activists in Arizona reimagined their annual parade, dance party, and organizing event as a series of virtual meetups, lectures, and performances.

It was among the first online gay-pride festivals of the Covid-19 era, a private experience of joy and camaraderie. In the future, it may influence how scholars write the history of this period of mass disruption.

A growing number of colleges and universities are announcing the cancellation of face-to-face teaching for what remains of the academic year, and continuing instead through online teaching. Given the technology available, this need not be especially problematic. But in practice, it is, and in many cases means the 2020 academic year is lost.

Things didn’t have to end like this: Learning online is not impossible, but will be difficult unless we start looking at things differently. Why is it a problem for teaching to continue through the internet?