The rapid shift to online learning spurred by the pandemic has forced universities and academics to rethink their whole approach to teaching, which had become a 鈥減oor relation鈥� to research, the 探花视频 World Academic Summit has heard.

In a panel discussion considering whether the Covid-19 era would mark a new dawn for the sector, panellists told the online event that the benefit of creating so many digital courses would endure long after the crisis.

Susan McCahan, vice-provost of academic programmes at the University of Toronto, said her institution had gone from offering 150 courses online two years ago to providing several thousand now, adding that the process had prompted academics to 鈥渞eally deeply鈥� reassess how they taught students.

鈥淪o when they return to teaching in person, they are going to return to a different approach, and thinking process, around their courses than they may have had before,鈥� she said.

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Her points were echoed by Richard Miles, vice-provost for academic performance at the University of Sydney. 鈥淚f there is going to be a silver lining out of this, it is going to be making universities like ours think much harder about鈥eaching, which has sometimes been a聽sort of poor relation,鈥� he said.

This was all the more important given that 鈥渇or most universities it is our bread and butter; it pays the bills, and it even pays for much of our glorious research as well鈥�, he said.

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Bin Yang, provost and vice-president at Tsinghua University, said the benefit of online technology was more often in the way it complemented traditional methods rather than in replacing them with distance learning.

鈥淟everaging the advantage of online technology, complementing in-person components, has led to greater levels of learning inclusion,鈥� he said.

Citing one example of this, Professor Yang said student surveys were suggesting that 鈥渓earners are more comfortable to text classroom feedback and questions instead of raising hands鈥�.

The data from these interactions could be used to create 鈥渟mart teaching tools鈥� that enable teachers to better understand their students鈥� behaviour, he added. 鈥淪mart teaching is making learning personalised and allowing learners to learn according to their aptitude.鈥�

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Meanwhile, the panel also refuted suggestions that the move towards online education meant that fees for tuition should be lowered.

Clay Shirky, vice-provost of educational technologies at New York University, said that 鈥済iven the human capital involved in online education鈥� was no different from in-person teaching and required specialist IT infrastructure as well, 鈥渢here are no immediate cost savings鈥�.

鈥淲e continue to recruit the best faculty we can find, and we continue to pay them competitively. Given that is the single largest input to online, there isn鈥檛 any massive cost savings that we can pass on to the student,鈥� he聽said.

Professor McCahan also emphasised that as the internet had made information ubiquitous, the 鈥渃ore鈥� part of a degree education had become 鈥渁ssessment and feedback鈥�.

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鈥淭hat is no less expensive and, I聽would argue, is increasingly important in education. Doing that online actually requires as much or more effort鈥� because feedback often needed to be personalised, she said.

simon.baker@timeshighereducation.com