Page 2 - CT Innovation in Education, June 2022

INNOVATION IN EDUCATION | CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY – LEARN MORE AT CAMPUSTECHNOLOGY.COM
The Power of Technology to Drive Change
By boosting technology investments, institutions can adopt modern teaching systems, ensure equity and diversity among students and faculty, and capitalize on data-driven services and operations.
FOR MANY COLLEGES AND
universities, the global pandemic
served as a wake-up call about the
need for more innovative teaching models. They discovered that remote learning is
no longer an occasional tool for specific situations. Instead, a mix of in-person and online platforms has become an imperative for ensuring equity and educational excellence.
In a hybrid flexible (HyFlex) model, students can decide whether to participate in person,
Close collaboration between faculty and technology teams is also important as both groups adapt to new teaching models. To ensure clear communication, many institutions will need to invest in cameras, microphones and speaker systems, and many classes would benefit from a technology assistant who keeps track of the messages students post and resolves any technical issues.
log in remotely during their scheduled class time or access the recorded session at their convenience. Each modality should provide an equivalent learning experience: As a recent Educause Review article put it, “the goal of HyFlex is to make the online and in-person experiences equal for students.... The online
experience should not be a lesser version of the in-person experience; it should be an alternative to it.”
HyFlex learning has the potential to improve access to higher education, and that has profound implications for institutions, students and the country as a whole. By offering a mix of learning environments, a college or university can attract more diverse students and faculty members and create a richer educational environment. That can lead to higher student success rates, loyal alumni who contribute financially to the college or university, and an enhanced institutional reputation in today’s competitive landscape.
In a recent survey of Campus Technology readers, 70% of respondents agreed that the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion is driving their institutions to be more innovative in the use of technology for teaching.
When the pandemic began, many colleges and universities had to scramble to make remote learning available, and subsequent research has shown mixed results. An article from the University of Pennsylvania notes that “a study published in Economics Letters ... found that online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic hurt student learning, but did not hurt particular demographic groups more
than others. However, they did find that if the instructor used active learning techniques, students were more engaged and thus learning outcomes improved.”
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