How should we respond to the life-altering crises that education is facing?

ABSTRACT

Prior literature suggests that to address the problems facing education, researchers and practitioners of online and flexible learning should avoid placing too much emphasis on the potential of technology and consult the history and literature of the field. In this reflective article, I argue that in addition to these activities, we should expand our efforts to broaden the reach and impact of our field and engage in speculative work that asks: What should the future of digital, online, and flexible education look like?

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• post-pandemic education
• digital learning scholarship
• speculative methods
• future of education

Disclosure statement

The author reports that he has no potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Canada Research Chairs and Social Sciences and Humanities Council to the author. The support of the Commonwealth of Learning Chairs program is also acknowledged.

Notes on contributors

George Veletsianos

Dr. George Veletsianos is a professor at Royal Roads University, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology and the Commonwealth of Learning Chair in Flexible Learning. His research centers on online and flexible learning. He blogs at http://www.veletsianos.com.