The future of online learning and higher education in the post-pandemic world

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a series of changes in various domains of our lives, many of which may prove enduring. One such area is education, where most of the world’s institutions of formal learning were forced to move into “remote” delivery. Educational institutions had to rethink the ways in which instruction could occur under these emergency circumstances. In this chapter, we reflect on the switch to online learning during the pandemic, but also why this move may prove significant for other pressing reasons. We are analyzing how the online medium can contribute to learning, apart from supporting remote instruction. We are providing scenarios for transitioning higher education to a completely online format whether remote or in support of in-person provision. Such a change may not only address the immediate needs set by the Covid-19 crisis, but it would also change the concept of higher education towards addressing the needs and the characteristics of contemporary students. We also point out the potential that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in this transformation, and we mention how it is used or can be used in higher education. Finally, the chapter offers a new vision of online learning. We argue that we need to abandon the current generation of educational technologies and view this Covid-19 crisis as an opportunity to make the biggest change since the invention of the social processes and artifacts of education in early modern times.