COVID-19-mandated online lecture delivery exposes digital divide

While high technology cannot possibly directly deliver humans from the current COVID-19 virus, may be it could at least help in picking up some of the slack associated with the pandemic. Specifically, as the disease spreads rapidly in many countries and communities, education has been impacted very significantly. The risk of spreading in schools is […]

While high technology cannot possibly directly deliver humans from the current COVID-19 virus, may be it could at least help in picking up some of the slack associated with the pandemic. Specifically, as the disease spreads rapidly in many countries and communities, education has been impacted very significantly. The risk of spreading in schools is particularly high. Last week the United Nations (UN) reported that scores of countries across three continents had already started closing schools as a result COVID-19 outbreaks. Affected are universities, high schools, middle schools, elementary schools, and kindergartens. According to the UN, “that means nearly 300 million children missing class worldwide, creating an unparalleled education disruption.”

Also as a precautionary measure, classes in some tertiary institutions in the US and elsewhere will no longer meet in person. Such “social-distancing” steps are being taken to support government and community’s efforts to curb wanton spread of COVID-19, which has been identified as one of the most infectious viruses encountered in modern times. Online delivery of classes has already been instituted in many South Korean universities, including the State University of New York in Korea, with which I am affiliated. Moreover, many tertiary institutions in the US and elsewhere will be trying to implement such measures in the coming weeks. Even my own institution here in New York – the State University of New York  – has alerted us lecturers of the prospect of delivering our classes online starting on 23 March 2020, which is the first day after spring break.

At the University of Washington (UWA), which is situated in a community with the largest number of coronavirus-infected people in the US, the university administration has asked instructors (lecturers), starting from 9 March 2020, “to conduct classes and/or exams remotely, as possible, until the quarter concludes on March 20,” and, “in some cases, when the nature of a class is not suited for remote delivery, other options, including submitting grades based on work conducted to this point, may be used.” “In addition, final exams will not be conducted in person, but may be conducted online when feasible, and at the instructor’s discretion.” As UWA sees it, “our goal is to make sure that students’ academic work is fairly recognized and that any disruption does not present a disadvantage to their future academic progress, including admission to their preferred major in the months or years to come.”

Moving classes online is an easy decision to make; actualizing it is obviously a very different matter. There are two kinds of problem. The first is the IT savviness of the instructors. I have been involved with a project to move instructions online in a few institutions around the world, including “open” universities, which are synonymous with online course delivery. It wasn’t easy. A big part of the problem is the instructors themselves, who by all means tried to resist moving online, using all machinations imaginable to foil efforts. The reasons are of course quite simple to appreciate: the technology gap and the learning curve on the part of the instructors. Also, change is difficult for many people, who might have been doing things one way for decades, and are quite resistant to adopt other ways. Another reason is the extra workload associated with the development of digital contents – preparing PowerPoint or PDF presentations and recording voices. Also, the availability of user-friendly software media for online instruction cannot be assumed. The Blackboard was originally conceived to address this issue, but it is not clear that the objective has been achieved. The software Zoom and Google Classroom may come in handy.

Of course, purely online degrees are available in some institutions around the world, particularly in the US. So, online course delivery is not new at all, and this column in Daily Trust has written numerous articles on the subject.  In the 12 March 2018 article, I wrote on “Coursera using MOOCs leverage to offer online degrees in leading UK and U.S. universities.” In January 2012, Udacity was launched; then Coursera in April 2012, followed by edX in May 2012. These are the world’s leading online learning platforms offering MOOCs, or Massively Open Online Courses. Thus, we are not in a totally dark area. However, those online education platforms are the exceptions rather than the rule, and that’s where the problem stems from for those concerned.

On the other end of the online course delivery spectrum is the student. Online content delivery requires an Internet connection. While this may not be much of a difficulty for the instructor, it could be a show-stopper for the student, as not all students have Internet connections at home. Even when they do, the bandwidth required to support online content management could be lacking. The UK Guardian notes last week, in connection with the US schools that are moving to online instructions because of COVID-19: “as many schools try to shift to online lesson plans, they’re running into the limitations of our threadbare broadband networks, which leave many students unable to connect to their new online classrooms.” In many parts of the world, particularly in developing countries, there may be other layers of problems, including unavailability of reliable power supply to support online learning. This digital divide will obviously come to the fore as the world tries to find a way around some aspects of a difficult pandemic.