Moving Online Learning from Challenge to Opportunity

• 03/17/21

The pandemic proved the value of technology to create rich, immersive, personalized learning experiences that engage students. Actively engaged students are active learners who persist and ultimately succeed.

Dr. Dustin York, associate professor of communication at Maryville, reimagined the synchronous virtual classroom as a live media broadcast. He peppers his broadcasts with trailers, animation, multiple cameras, music, polls and surveys. He fuses media tools with learning strategies to grab students' attention and keep them engaged.

Similarly, Maryville criminology professor Geri Brandt, working in concert with our learning designers and on-site production studio, used 360-degree camera technology to stage a virtual, explorable, interactive crime scene. Extending this online experience further, the criminology department created a "choose your own adventure" virtual experience, where each student response or choice in an investigation leads to a different outcome.

Creativity and innovation on this scale are only possible when faculty work with a talented team of learning design professionals who can translate a vision of interactive and immersive learning into a new student experience. Designing and delivering this active learning ecosystem integrated in online and on-ground learning takes a team of committed professionals and the courage to make it happen.

Fostering Lifetime Learners

Our online undergraduate and graduate degree programs have grown consistently over the past decade. In 2020, Maryville was named the second-fastest-growing private university in the nation by the Chronicle of Higher Education, jumping two spots from its previous ranking. The boost was fueled in large part by Maryville's ever-expanding online programs.

As we prepare for the post-pandemic economy, the massive need for upskilled and reskilled workers is paramount. Rural and urban communities alike desperately need skilled healthcare professionals. The massive shift online for businesses of all types requires new technologists, cybersecurity experts, digital marketers and analysts.

At the same time, millions of service sector workers remain unemployed or underemployed. These capable, dedicated, driven workers simply need the opportunity to learn and grow.

Our online platform is evolving to match high-demand skills with new ways to learn, including digital certificates, credential programs and boot camps. Four-year-degree and graduate programs will always be staples of higher education, but online learning allows us to provide continuous industry-relevant skills development to keep pace with rapid shifts in technology and workforce needs.

The pandemic forced higher education to evolve more rapidly than ever before. Necessity opened the door to new technologies and learning pathways. Now we have a choice: to follow these new pathways to a more open, inclusive and equitable future, or to turn back. The hard part is over; we've faced the biggest challenge. It is time to embrace a bright, bold, virtual future.