Will the Pandemic Change Higher Education for Good?

10 February 2021

8 February 2021 [Harvard Graduate School of Education] – The challenges that the field of education has faced this year have been well-documented, from the swift and surprising shift to online learning in spring 2020 to the transition into a more robust and sustainable model of remote teaching and learning this fall and winter. In the realm of higher education, as in other areas, leaders were forced to think creatively to meet new challenges, solve problems, and innovate. Not every solution will alter the education landscape forever, but some of the changes — from evolving curriculum to increased access to the power of new digital tools — could have long-term potential to do just that.

In the most recent edition of Education Now, co-sponsored with Harvard Abroad and hosted by the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, Dean Bridget Long and Harvard’s Vice Provost for Advances in Learning Bharat Anand discussed the new and still-emerging advantages of remote learning, which of the innovations in higher education are worth keeping, which can be applied more widely, and how can they be leveraged to help shape the future of higher ed around the world. The conversation also recounted Harvard’s own dramatic shift — at an unparalleled pace — to embrace online pedagogy, and the challenges it encountered. The event was moderated by HGSE’s Senior Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching Matthew L. Miller and hosted by Harvard Vice Provost Mark Elliott.