Good delivery, not technology, ‘saved teaching during pandemic’

The emergency shift to online teaching during the pandemic showed that “innovation is overrated and execution is underrated”, according to the leader who oversaw the transition at New York University.

Clay Shirky, vice-provost for educational technologies, said it was not new tools that “saved” the institution during lockdowns but rather a focus on adapting existing practices to better suit its faculty and students.

The university has stuck with this approach as it changes to meet different student demands post-crisis, Professor Shirky told Times Higher Education’s World Academic Summit, held at NYU, with more of a focus on modifying tools that are already used to aid collaboration, rather than chasing the “next big thing”.

“When we are thinking about implementing technology to support online education, particularly for undergraduates, the first big thing we learned is innovation is overrated and execution is underrated,” he said.

“Prior to the crisis, we were very excited about innovation and what the new tools and technologies could do – the next big thing.

“The minute the crisis hit, we dropped all of that. It became apparent that what we knew to focus on was, ‘How do we take the tools we already have and make them easier for faculty to use, more flexible, and easier for students to understand?’”

Professor Shirky said the institution’s internal polling showed that the number of undergraduates who want the option of online courses has tripled, from about one in five pre-pandemic to two in three now.

Students want the option, he said, because of their busy lives away from campus, and online lectures offer them some continuity when schedules get crowded or crises erupt. Having an online offering to fall back on might be the difference between their completing their course and dropping out, Professor Shirky added.

“The fact they want it is a transformative pressure,” he said. “It is not going to be rapid, but it will be transformative eventually.”

Speaking on the same panel, Farshida Zafar, director of the Erasmus University Rotterdam’s online offering, ErasmusX, said universities should ignore the obsession with “hype terms” such as “hybrid” or “blended” learning and just focus on the quality of the teaching and how students and teachers can engage.

“That is the only thing you need to focus on. For everything else, the technology, will work itself out…Do not focus on ‘this is hybrid’ or ‘blended’; it means nothing. It is all about teaching,” she said.

Professor Shirky agreed, stressing: “If you are worried about the quality of online teaching, worry about the teaching part.

“Do things you already know how to do without thinking about how students and faculty are interacting with each other,” he said. “Those practices will improve teaching everywhere, not just online.”

Online offerings have already started to shift how students make choices about where to study, with decisions increasingly being based on data rather than reputation, Ms Zafar said.

Professor Shirky pointed out that the US has seen a “dramatic transfer” to institutions that offer online courses, which has benefited larger institutions to the detriment of smaller ones.

Given that the sector has so many degree-granting institutions, such small changes could have big impacts, he said, pointing out that every year since 2010 has seen more colleges close than open in the US, a “reversal of the historical pattern”.

But, he said, online offerings were unlikely to undermine business models that relied on high tuition fees paid by international students.

“At no school has the population enrolled online been the same as in-person,” he said. “It is more likely to be Americans who want to take the online courses, so we’re more international in person than we are online,” he said.

“We also don’t see the two offerings as being directly competitive. International students who want to study in New York, want to be in New York.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com