the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the coronavirus pandemic and now social unrest has changed the way students will learn. Colleges have closed their campuses , classes have moved online. The age range for effective online or remote learning has been greatly expanded, some suggesting even as young as middle school would benefit from a more focused remote learning environment especially given the irrationality of some of the social unrest. Some of these changes will be temporary, but others may be permanent.
When the coronavirus forced schools to close their campuses and move classes online in March, essentially all college students were forced to become online learners. Some believe that these students will continue to choose online learning in the years ahead. Not only will students be more open to learning online, but they also may be more open to learning in alternative ways.
With as many as 36 million unemployed Americans who have lost their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic , many will focus on learning specific skills ie… through coding bootcamps, and certificate and licensing programs, rather than go back to college full-time to earn an advanced degree, such as a master’s degree.
The coronavirus pandemic has also accelerated a trend that has been building momentum for years, the rise of digital textbooks.
Schools will face additional financial pressures following the coronavirus pandemic. For many schools, even wealthy ones, these pressures may lead to layoffs.
For instance, in May, Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne announced in a letter to the Stanford community that the school was facing financial challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic and that some reduction in the school’s workforce would likely be “unavoidable” — in spite of the school’s $27.7 billion endowment. For many universities there are going to be adjustments to staffing levels.
Schools that were financially struggling before the coronavirus pandemic are much more likely to face adjustments. “For institutions that are going to [reduce staffing levels], this particular crisis has probably accelerated those decisions .
For many years now, education analysts such as late Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, have predicted that as much as half of U.S. colleges and universities would close, in part due to dropping enrollment numbers because of an aging population (known as the enrollment crunch) as well as technological disruption. COVID19 and now social unrest has accelerated the trend of colleges closing.
