What do students need in the age of lockdown learning? Early lessons from New Zealand’s online frontline
In article on The Conversation, University of Canterbury (UC) Associate Professor Cheryl Brown discusses student needs for lockdown learning.
UC Students outside on campus in summer.
I passed post-grad students on the stairs popping onto campus to collect their laptop or headphones, anxiously asking each other how they were doing.
It’s not like universities haven’t been preparing for the possibility of a return to emergency remote learning, but the sudden change in alert levels still came as a shock.
As universities return for the final months of the academic year, it’s important we recognise the challenges ahead. The re-emergence of COVID-19 community transmission in Aotearoa shows how tenuous our circumstances are. It’s becoming apparent the world will be living with this for some time, so the need to be flexible and adaptable is coming into clear focus.
Aside from all the logistical demands of the new normal, we need to listen to student voices more than ever. As the OECD has noted, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected young people, and they must be adequately represented in our responses and recovery.