Returning to school or campus will challenge every institution to rethink their capabilities for providing blended in-person and remote learning experiences to help create a safer environment for students, educators and administrators.
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During the shutdown, learners and educators around the world found themselves participating in an unparalleled remote learning experiment. Administrators, educators, students and parents have been forced to find new ways to teach and learn under immense pressure. For some, it means a heavily amplified use of online platforms, processes and tools that were already in place. Yet for many, remote teaching and learning is uncharted territory with a steep learning curve. For too many students, it has meant their education has come to a halt due to lack of access to basic technological building blocks — a device and internet access — which will have consequences for years to come.

There is deep uncertainty around what the landscape of education will look like in a post-COVID world. In the short term, it’s unclear when students and educators will be able to return safely to school or campus — and how the next academic year will be structured. In the longer term, COVID-19 has highlighted the need for new approaches, models and solutions. Adaptability, resilience, creativity and higher problem-solving capabilities are the skills educators and students will need more than ever moving forward. Students
are self-directing their learning in ways they have not before, while teachers are employing their ingenuity and creativity to redesign learning experiences to support their students. We know these skills and dispositions are needed to thrive in the future. Consequently, learning experiences will need to become more personalized, student-centered and student driven. Learning at one’s own pace does not always mean learning alone, so collaborative, interdependent learning and teaching experiences will be vitally important. New adoption of technological tools and platforms to enhance and better support the learning and teaching experience will become a greater need in the future.

The importance of wellbeing, already a focus for administrators and educators, is being amplified by
the pandemic and the constraint of online learning platforms. The stress, anxiety and mental health issues that students and educators may already face without the needed coping skills are intensified by the uncertainty, isolation and overwhelming nature of COVID-19. As they plan for the return to school and campus, administrators recognize the need to be more intentional about the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of their students and educators — and the greater need to ensure their physical and psychological safety.

We know that face-to-face experiences will be more important than ever. Education is more than just teaching and learning. It is about the interactions people have with one another — between colleagues, friends and the community. It is the intangible energy of ideas and scholarship. It is the extracurricular activities that drive further purpose through clubs, arts and sports. And it is the small serendipitous moments that happen in hallways, while walking across campus or meeting up with friends or life experiences like living in residences. These experiences are rooted in the physical spaces of schools and campuses. But educational institutions cannot simply pick up where they left off – they will need to change with the resolve to be stronger, more resilient and adaptable communities of curiosity, discovery, creativity and collaboration where all students and educators can thrive. It is an opportunity to re-evaluate and reimagine what education can be.

As we navigate what's next, solutions need to be holistic and consider not just furniture, but also materials, technology, planning paradigms and even behaviors and protocols. Our ideas are rooted in the science
of infection control as we work with human health experts to define national and local guidelines for what makes a school or campus safe. We also want to be practical, providing ideas that educational institutions can adopt now for the return to school and campus, but in a responsible way that also looks ahead to the near and far. Educational institutions must immediately be made safer, but also more resilient and more adaptive to the changes we can only imagine as new factors impact this post-COVID world.

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