The Unknowing Force of Education: Lessons from the Pandemic

Educational systems are resilient systems, with technology functioning as an essential tool to overcome the shocks. The pandemic made educational systems realize they possess great capacity to overcome hurdles and create awareness that universities should use their potential to innovate. This blog focuses on some positive lessons learned from the pandemic for higher educational systems, stressing those characteristics and innovations that universities probably should consider in the post-pandemic. By looking at the positive outcomes, we do not mean to ignore that the pandemic was a very challenging period for humanity and overall negatively impacted higher education. Yet, the positive learnings may be most beneficial for institutions in moving forward.
The educational system serves as an example of speedy adjustment with, besides negatives, many positive impacts during the pandemic and positive lessons for the future. At the onset of the pandemic, the educational system was forced to make drastic changes in its educational offering modes and, if we did not want our students to be disadvantaged, we did not have the luxury to deliberate or wait. While on-campus education for many is a key feature of the educational experience, several population groups benefitted from the transition to online education. Examples are shy people who felt more at ease with online than with on-campus education, students who were able to avoid unsafe situations because of not having to commute to campus, or staff who experienced a better work-life balance, with the ability to give care and work from home.