Students at Athabasca University can study at their own pace, a flexibility that other institutions lack.
Most Septembers, the return to school is marked by packed classrooms, long lineups at the campus bookstore, busy student cafés and bars, library study sessions and cramped waiting rooms at student services.
Not this year. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian post-secondary institutions are struggling with how to deliver quality education while maintaining physical distancing. The solutions are obviously online, but many questions still remain. How will teachers deliver interesting lectures? How will students get their reading materials and submit their assignments? And what about exams?
These looming questions are giving pause to many would-be and current university students. According to a recent study commissioned by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), 30% of September 2020 enrollees are considering deferring school.
Most colleges and universities seem to be taking this approach where they’re really just recreating the experience of going to a physical building — show up on this day at this time. But we haven’t found a really strong rationale for doing things that way.
Dr. Neil Fassina, president of Athabasca University
At Athabasca University, though, it’s business as usual.
That’s because Athabasca has been specializing in distance education since the 1970s and has been a pioneer in digital-forward education since the dawn of the internet age.
“We’ve been a distance-based institution almost since we started 50 years ago, but in 1994 we shifted online. Since then, we’ve provided flexible, open and remote education for learners across Canada and around the world, offering everything from certificates to doctoral programs,” says Dr. Neil Fassina, president of Athabasca University. AU offers online education to more than 43,000 students a year from Canada and around the world.
“As an open university focused on distance education, we have a really unique, specialized approach to online learning that has taken us years to develop. In this new world of physical distancing, we’re really seeing how our model can appeal to students across Canada and abroad,” says Fassina.
Beyond the classroom
Right now, academic institutions and teachers across Canada are trying to figure out how to recreate the classroom in an online format.
That’s where they’re going wrong.
No one wants to listen to an hours-long Zoom lecture at an appointed time each week. Nobody wants to spend hours every week trapped in a chat room debating with anonymous classmates.
Fassina says this is how Athabasca University stands apart. “Most colleges and universities seem to be taking this approach where they’re really just recreating the experience of going to a physical building—show up on this day at this time. But we haven’t found a really strong rationale for doing things that way,” he says. “Instead, most AU students get to enroll on their timeline, in the month of their choice, and then have six months to finish that course. They schedule coursework around their life, as opposed to needing to schedule their lives around the work.”
“There’s nothing wrong with in-class, place-based learning, but it’s not for everyone,” says Fassina. “What we are seeing from these institutions is not technically true online learning, but rather a stop-gap in which they try to replicate the in-class experience online.
“The mistake they are making is that in trying to recreate the in-class experience online, they’re losing the benefits of in-person learning without gaining the benefits of flexibility that Athabasca University’s curriculum allows for.”
At AU, each course is made available on demand, so the student can choose when to study, submit assignments and write exams. And, there are no completion caps. Students can do a Bachelor of Commerce in two years or 10 years—empowering them to complete their studies while also meeting their other life, work and family commitments.
Students at the graduate level, meanwhile, may start off with a slightly more structured program. For instance, MBA and DBA students typically enroll in a week-long, paced orientation course before proceeding to a work plan that outlines their activities, deadlines and collaborative class discussions.
Personalized, digital-driven education
Distance and online education have long suffered from the misconception that they are somehow “lesser” forms of education. The CAUT/CFS study indicates more than half of students don’t think online courses deliver the same kinds of experience or value as in-person classes.
In fact, Athabasca University is one of Alberta’s four Comprehensive Academic and Research Universities, with four Canada Research Chairs, and offers a more equitable approach to academia. In addition to having flexible scheduling and completion options that enable a greater variety of people to finish recognized degrees, AU also accommodates students with a wide range of personal and accessibility needs that may deter them from attending school in-person. The school even accommodates inmates pursuing higher education.
AU also serves international students, who may become an increasingly significant demographic in the 2020-2021 academic year, as students look for more affordable distance-education options, especially when compared to U.S. schools.
Athabasca University’s open, personalized, digital-forward approach to education is a solid match for younger generations’ evolving academic needs, especially in an era marked by a global pandemic and growing financial instability.
“We see this as an extension of the growing movement toward personalized learning,” says Fassina. “We’re making sure every student gets the education they want, in the ways they want to get it.”
This article was created by Content Works, Postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of Athabasca University.
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