JAPAN
Students and professors eager to keep online teaching
As more students are vaccinated in universities with the aim of
returning to campus life, experts are bracing for the consequences of
Japan’s embrace of online teaching and learning structure that started
with the emergence of the coronavirus last year.
“I continue to teach six hours straight each day, delivering online classes to hundreds of students taking my course. The experience is new for me and them, signalling major changes in future higher education in Japan,” said Professor Masaharu Okada, executive director of the Social Business Research Centre at Kyushu University, a national institution.
Okada says his students, after an initial hesitation towards classes turning to online instruction to cope with COVID-19, are now more eager to continue with the new teaching model.
“My students are now telling me they prefer online classes. A major attraction is that they don’t have to commute long hours to campus and are enjoying being able to study in diverse locations that are different to the classroom. COVID-19 has forced a minor revolution in university education,” he said.
In a survey conducted by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and published on 23 June showed more than 60% of students polled said they were either satisfied or somewhat satisfied about online classes. Being able to study at their own pace and place was cited as the leading reason.
The survey randomly selected 3,000 university, graduate and technical college students and received 1,744 valid responses.
After a slow start, given the reliance on traditional lecturing by professors in Japanese universities, recent comments from stakeholders are indicating increasing support for the use of online methodologies by professors.
“I was accustomed to only lecturing in the classroom, a common practice in Japanese universities that had ignored technology as an effective teaching tool,” explained Okada.
The future of online teaching and learning received a major boost from a new report released by the cabinet office on 3 June.
A policy paper including ICT-based teaching in higher education that was released on 3 June clearly promotes remote and online education in universities.
The paper is based on a study compiled by the Education Rebuilding Implementation Council that was led by education and technology experts.
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and the Minister of Education Koichi Hagiuda together with other policy-makers attended the hearing.
The paper cites forms of ‘new normal education’ and highlights the merits of combining online- and in-person study and inter-university collaboration systems in higher education.
Included among the major changes to be initiated under the hybrid system are the promotion of more data-driven learning and interactive or on-demand classrooms.
“Flexible approaches to higher education study encourage diversity based on the sharing of resources available free on the internet and strengthening the function of vocational education through industrial-academic collaboration,” is a key development outlined in the report.
Professor Hiroshi Ota, the director of the Centre for Global Education at the national Hitotsubashi University, explained that the adoption of more online teaching and learning is long overdue in Japan.
“There is a digital divide in the country and the generation gap manifests itself in higher education. With the emergence of the coronavirus, universities have been working hard to boost technology skills among the senior faculty, creating a much more online-savvy faculty and opening new doors for students,” he told University World News.
Ota, whose classes are mostly online, is keen for universities to continue to expand the use of ICT in teaching in the post COVID-19 era because it will contribute to the expansion of global learning in Japan, he said.
“More Japanese students are realising the new opportunities available when studying online. As they grasp the merits of ICT, I view campuses taking on the role of providing space for personal interaction rather than a place for traditional classrooms,” he said.
“This change will be specifically observed in the humanities and social sciences that rely less on laboratory work,” he said.
Measures taken to increase online classrooms, however, have also led to problems for universities. The same June survey conducted by the Ministry of Education has indicated that studying without friends has increased loneliness and students facing difficulties in following the classes because they could not seek advice from colleagues.
On 9 June, the Mainichi Newspaper reported a case in which a university student is planning to sue Meisei University for the return of his tuition costs. The report quoted the student, who had enrolled for business studies, as filing legal documents demanding JPY1.4 million (about US$13,000) in compensation that includes part of the tuition fees he has paid.
He argued that the business department offered only online courses and no opportunity to mingle with professors or students.
Ota forecasts that the ongoing debate on online courses, that includes both positive and negative impacts, will have ushered in a new era in higher education in Japan.
“If more universities seize the opportunity to expand classes into the digital era, Japan’s higher education will change remarkably in the long term,” Ota said.
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