On Reimagining a Future for Online Learning in the Post-COVID Era

Abstract

Over the past decade, Dr Kevin Jones taught me a lot about blended learning. I had the privilege of supervising his doctoral work on the impertinent plausibility of learning without lectures (Jones & Sharma, 2019). And we weren’t trying to be prescient. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we resumed this conversation, much of it in a narrative-style Q&A via email or web-conferencing. As much as our conversations are on-going, we agreed that, given the current, unfortunate reality of the large, unintended experimentation with online learning, Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) must seek out lessons that will co-design with stakeholders a blended future when the current pandemic is brought under control.