Now Live And In Your Neighborhood: The Chaotic, Global-Scale Lab To many students and their parents, this forced march to online learning feels like a wild west, thrown together with duct tape and bubble gum. An entire class will fall apart because a teacher can’t figure out their mic. Lectures are being “Zoom-bombed” by trolls and porn. Many students struggle to stay engaged without an in- person experience. But as professors, students, and their institutions understand that they must make digital work for the balance of the school year, they are investing in making it better. We are seeing grassroots innovation at unprecedented scale as millions of diverse stakeholders around the world focus their collective attention on one of the most important questions of our era: how can we more effectively learn online? Some teachers are bringing workplace collaboration tools like Slack and Zoom into the classroom. Others have used tools intended for gamers, like Twitch and Discord, to stream classes and encourage discussion. But students and their teachers are also experimenting with all-new techniques. “You lose something without in-person human engagement, but you can also gain something,” explains Greenfield. “In a typical classroom, students sit in rows facing a teacher, which encourages a hierarchical approach to learning. But we know that being actively engaged is better. Having a screen with a bunch of boxes is less hierarchical. People who aren’t comfortable asserting themselves in class or a study session may be willing to enter the conversation via chat. New forms of collaboration are emerging.” After months of this kind of agile innovation, it is inevitable that the tools and how we apply them will have advanced. Under Pressure: Where Is The Financial Breaking Point? The price tag of a four-year degree has increased almost eight times faster than wages. But what will happen as we hit an unemployment rate that is the highest since the Great Depression? Students who are getting months of online learning experience may consider alternatives that would have been unspeakable a month ago, seeking ways to substitute online- centric alternatives for the traditional campus experience come fall.
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September 2020 | The Business Review
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