Student learning in the midst of the pandemic: the case of the UK
10 November 2020, CGHE webinar
Kyungmee Lee, Lancaster University
Ben Williamson, University of Edinburgh
Naomi Winstone, University of Surrey
The Covid-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges to course delivery across the higher education world. The move to online education in February-March was achieved more rapidly than many expected, with the sometimes brilliant improvisation of new platforms and local developments, but provision has been inevitably uneven and no higher education system can be confident that it has solved problems of inequality of access to the Internet and online learning devices, especially the unequal distribution of computers. Many systems have moved to hybrid forms of delivery in which enhanced online activity is combined with managed face to face classes, which again has generated creative new approaches. However, in countries where the pandemic continues to be active, provision is subject to sudden changes. Meanwhile teaching and welfare loads have ballooned, and there is considerable concern about particular groups of students who are especially at risk or under provided for under pandemic conditions.
What is happening with teaching and learning in the UK, with a student population of record size in varying circumstances in and out of lock-down, in the most challenging year in the higher education sector that anyone can remember? The webinar brings together three UK-based experts in the provision of, and research on, student learning in the Covid-19 era.