“Normalizing” the online/blended delivery method into a lasting cultural shift

ABSTRACT

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is a great disruptor which has challenged established practice and experience of risk and change management, while presenting significant opportunities to accelerate proposed change and develop new innovations for the future of learning and knowledge dissemination. To this point, the development and uptake of online higher education (HE) has been slow and not particularly progressive, held back in part by a resistance from traditional HE institutions to disrupt their current business model, which is heavily reliant on the long-term residential attendance of students at costly physical premises. However, the imperative of moving quickly to online and blended learning as a result of the pandemic is now challenging deeply held sector beliefs and approaches to the delivery of higher education. With the continued expansion of student numbers and the escalation of costs to both the student and the taxpayer, the previous static model of HE no longer makes sense, especially in a world where young people do everything else online-play, consume, form relationships, shop, socialize and, yes, learn, albeit mostly in an unstructured way. The opportunity is now there to understand the potential of the current practical shift to online and blended learning, to turn it into a lasting cultural shift by “normalizing” this delivery method, and to develop new, flexible and better value forms of high-quality HE provision, whether face to face, blended, or pure online. © 2021 David Baker and Lucy Ellis Published by Elsevier Ltd.