A departure from the norm

How will the campuses look like in a post-Covid environment? There is no simple answer, but the best pointer to the answer is the learning culture of the institution. It prompts us to reinvent the culture rather than going back to normal. The learning culture of an institute also reflects the shared values, beliefs, skill sets, and conventions. It impacts all aspects of the campus, from admission through teaching to placements and beyond. Once we plan for and get a grip on the learning culture, other aspects like instructional practices, uncertainties, hierarchies, and systems can be taken care of to a great extend.

Educational currencies

Masks may minimise face-to-face class interactions. Social distancing may disguise many facial expressions. And the air may have a fear of infection. Reimagining connection with the disconnected students who are already marginalised due to digital inequity is another challenge. Planning the physical space, access control, and flow of students are other concerns for administrators. Yet, a powerful culture can integrate wellbeing with learning by establishing new cultural signposts and by reframing the situation.

Covid-19 has exposed many weaknesses in the current educational system. The focus should be on better equipping us to plug those gaps, most of which are rooted in the academic culture of our campuses. Digitally competent campuses can execute distributed learning, online learning, hybrid schedules, flipping, and similar options. So, such competencies will be the educational currencies of the future. This is well-known. What is lesser-known is: Imbibing a nimbler and resilient approach to any uncertainty is more of a matter of cultural practice than protocols. For example, with digital competencies, whether the leadership, faculty, and the students have a digital mindset as a part of their learning culture can answer most questions of a volatile environment. The culture can tell the degree to which learning and wellbeing can be successfully integrated by an institution.

Multidimensional choices

Learning has now become multidimensional. Earlier there was limited content in the form of texts, guides and notes given by faculty members, which a student would refer to. Now there are multiple methods to learn and teach leading to different personal pathways and choices.

Listening to the students on where and how they experience the knowledge gaps is a significant input leading to a feedback culture. A progressive academic culture will offer freedom to exercise meaningful daily choices for its learners and educators. Choices in resources open new passions to explore. Choices in instructional activities and technology tools unlock renewed interest for students by which they take responsibility to show their learning. It is again our choice whether we want to work with the tangibles of culture or play with peripherals of learning.

Experimentation and collaboration

No instructional method is complete. Experimenting with different teaching and learning methods is a necessity in the post-Covid campus. Class sequencing, the material used, session plan, and evaluation are arenas to experiment. Similarly, less structured learning and microlearning require the learning culture of a laboratory. More interaction with technology and merging IT and academics call for cognitive flexibility and structural dexterity. Unfortunately, the daily fabric of most academic culture in India search for certitude, not experimentation. A cultural shift can correct these values which are currently at odds.

Covid-19 is a compelling reason for collaboration and resource sharing. A campus that encourages collaborative culture can ensure better learning. This necessitates institutions to create shared value by different types of collaboration than done in the past.

Traditional academic institutions face many criticisms for their fortified academic culture. If you doubt, just ask: Beyond the mandated MoUs and routine guest lectures, how many external experts from non-academia are well-received in an institution regularly. Building inclusive academic communities and taking regional responsibility is also a part of a progressive learning culture. Again, it requires a departure from the past to channel scarce resources for technology-enabled academic development than making physical buildings more impressive.

Impacting cultural change

Existence of an organisational DNA makes cultural change harder. Start small with a minor move. Simple unorthodox changes in teaching practices, timings, resources used and innovative ways to bridge the technology-academic divide can support the students in unimaginable ways.

Most educational practices still work on some inherited assumptions. It is visible from how we organise a class to what subjects to teach and how to teach. This is the time to rethink those passed down logic and to have a meaningful cultural shift in learning: Back to better, not normal. It is about reinventing not adapting.

(The writer is an Education Officer with the University Grants Commission. Views are personal)