As a learning designer, I ask a lot of questions. But the many “whats” and “whys” of my day-to-day work helping nonprofits deliver digital learning experiences all come back to two central questions:
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Just like an in-person community, an online community is a place for people to share their expertise and their dedication to a common mission. When Extension Engine partnered with Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR) to scale their in-person model, we realized that this nonprofit was connecting committed and knowledgeable stakeholders across the country. But they needed a communal space in which to learn from, encourage, and inspire one another.
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Like many avid exercisers, when it became clear in May 2020 that COVID-19 would keep me out of the gym for months to come, I explored getting a Peloton bike. Well, my excitement was short-lived: At 4′11″, I simply could not comfortably reach the handlebars. If they had been adjustable, if I could have pulled them closer by one inch — just one inch — the bike would have worked perfectly for me.
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Summary
In this piece, I make a case for why schools should lean into the hybrid and online course infrastructure that they have built during the pandemic. Hybrid and online courses and programs provide schools several advantages:
- Increased flexibility, for both long-term and short-term student circumstances
- Enhanced residential learning, by incorporating personalized course data, ongoing assessments, and richer media types
- Better returns on investments already made, through continued emergency preparedness and differentiated education offerings for price-conscious audiences
Have you ever heard the joke about the IT leader who lost her job because she purchased off-the-shelf software? No? Me neither. How about the one about users hating their job after their company purchased off-the-shelf software? Unfortunately, I’ve heard that one a lot, and it’s not a joke.
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