This is a short piece that I published earlier this year.  It was an odd piece, as I participated in several sessions that were a part of a Virtual Symposium on “Scaffolding a Transformative Transition to Distance and Online Learning” that was offered by the Teaching & Learning Support Service at the University of Ottawa.  The symposium was described as:

Scaffolding a Transformative Transition to Distance and Online Learning documents the lived experiences of those involved in the post-secondary pedagogical transition resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting personal experiences, lessons learned, and future educational directions. It is a collection of insights from a series of three symposia and participants’ reflections. This collective writing project encapsulates three areas of transformation that have been explored across the symposium series: 1) Confronting the challenges of the distance/online instructional modality; 2) Taking stock of the changes in thinking about, and practice of, distance/online instruction and learning; and 3) Considering how experiences will shape our practice as we look to the future of teaching and learning.

Following the symposium, they invited participants to submit academic reflections that would be included in a future ebook. The symposium items were held from November 2020 to May 2021.  The submissions were due in September 2021…  And then we waited.  Finally, in December 2022 the ebook was published at https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/transitiontodistanceandonlinelearning/  My submission was:

Overcoming the Stigma Before Taking Stock

Michael K. Barbour

College of Education and Health Sciences, Touro University California, California

While online learning in Canadian universities had grown annually by approximately 10% per year prior to the pandemic (Johnson, 2020), the rapid transition to and continued use of distance/online modalities over the past 18 months have placed considerable burden upon both instructors and students (Johnson, 2021). Many universities, often through their centres of teaching and learning, put forward a variety of efforts to address these new demands on faculty. As such, the idea that it is important “to take stock and make sense of dilemma-ridden experiences… toward a clearer state of order and understanding of how to effectively design and facilitate learning in distance and online modalities” (Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2021, p. 1), is a logic and necessary step towards preparing for the emerging new normal. However, before higher education can begin this process of reflection on what has happen, how higher education responded, and what we can and should be doing going forward; we must first wrestle with the realities of the nature and type of distance/online modalities that instructors and students have actually experienced thus far.

In this instance it is important to underscore the distinction between distance/online learning and remote learning.

Online learning, which was based on purposeful instructional planning, using a systematic model of administrative procedures and course development. Online learning also requires the careful consideration of various pedagogical strategies and determination of which are best suited to the specific affordances and challenges of local delivery mediums as well as the purposeful selection of tools based on the strengths and limitations of each one. Finally, careful planning for online learning also requires that teachers be appropriately trained to use the tools available and apply them effectively to facilitate student learning. (Barbour, 2021, para. 15)

This description is contrasted with remote learning as:

a temporary shift of instructional delivery to an alternate delivery mode due to crisis circumstances. It involves the use of fully remote teaching solutions for instruction or education that would otherwise be delivered face-to-face or as blended or hybrid courses and that will return to that format once the crisis or emergency has abated. The primary objective in these circumstances is not to re-create a robust educational ecosystem but rather to provide temporary access to instruction and instructional supports in a manner that is quick to set up and is reliably available during an emergency or crisis. (Hodges et al., 2020, para. 13)

While this distinction has been made regularly and frequently within academic circles, far too often the differences between these two instructional delivery models have been lost on the media and the general public.

An examination of the actual reality of the higher education response to the pandemic was illustrated well by Hill (2020).

Figure 1. Phases of response to COVID-19 in terms of remote and distance/online learning.

During the spring 2020 semester, faculty and students made a rapid transition to using distance/online tools and pedagogies to provide any modicum of continuity of learning (i.e., Phase 1). As both faculty and students became more comfortable with the tools and the medium, there was a transition from emergency remote learning to remote learning (i.e., Phase 2). While Hill was optimistic in his timeline for Phase 3, the 2020-21 academic year saw universities toggle “between states of lockdown [i.e., remote learning] and openness [i.e., in person learning], depending on their sense of epidemiological data and practical feasibility” (Alexander, 2020, para. 32). Finally, we wonder as the 2021-22 academic year begins whether this will be the first year of the “new normal” in higher education (i.e., Phase 4), or if we are in for yet another year of toggle terms.

Regardless, the difficulties faced by higher education during the remote learning in the first three phases has tarnished the full potential of distance/online learning in phase four. Before we begin to consider questions such as the challenges faced by instructors and students that could not be reconciled, how to ensure student engagement and a sense of community, or the ways to implement meaningful evaluations; we must first acknowledge the realities that faculty and students faced during the unplanned and rapid transition to remote learning. Before we begin to take stock of perceptions towards distance/online learning, how to ensure a wide range of student interactions or consequential feedback and assessments, or the ways to facilitate effective group work; we must first address the conflation of distance/online learning with remote learning. Before we begin to examine the emerging opportunities, the changes in instructional practices or student attitudes, or the future of teaching and learning in higher education; we must first address the stigma associated with distance/online learning.

To access in the original, go to https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/transitiontodistanceandonlinelearning/chapter/chapter-2-transforming-perspectives-regarding-the-teaching-and-learning-paradigm/ and click on “Participant Reflections.”