Following Government advice in March to avoid unessential travel and with social distancing guidelines in place, most universities were forced to close their campuses and allow students to study from home, leaving many with lost teaching time.

While some universities handled and managed this well, others struggled with the sudden closure and were unsure of how to continue. With students paying upwards of £9,000 per year in tuition fees, organisations faced a huge amount of pressure to ensure sufficient and high-quality teaching was provided online.

Although the world is hoping we don’t experience something like this again, it’s a good idea for universities to have the right tools and procedures in place to ensure they’re prepared for any unforeseen disturbances we may come across in the future.

Software2 recently asked the UK public what they think universities should do to prepare for the possibility of home studying in the future, the results are as follows:

Always allow the use of own devices for studies (27.1%)
Many universities have already implemented a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. This means students can work from their own phones, laptops, tablets and other devices rather than on-campus devices.

Peter Cooke, CMO at Software2 said: “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies and virtualization technologies are already becoming the norm at many universities. However, when circumstances force mass closures around the world, these provisions provide students and universities with the tools they need to continue studying and completing assignments remotely.”

There are a range of benefits of BYOD for Higher Education including:

• Students can easily access required information
• Lecturers and students can share assignments/notes with students easily
• Students can study from any location, any time

If BYOD was implemented in all universities, it would certainly make a sudden switch to studying from home run a lot smoother as students would already have the information and resources they need.

Peter added: “For those universities which have already implemented BYOD, allowing students to finish the final term of the academic year is a much smoother transition and relatively seamless.”

Always provide video lectures/seminars (22%)
This simply involves the university recording any lectures/seminars and sharing with students so they can continue to learn from home – if implemented with BYOD the recording is readily available. Videoing lectures and seminars has become increasingly popular over the years and doing this allows students to watch any lectures missed due to absences, rewatch lectures for revision purposes, and also allows them to work remotely if needs be.

Always provide access to necessary materials (21.8%)
The ability to access materials could be a big issue if studies were suddenly stopped – students may not have needed materials on their own devices as they may be saved on their university account. BYOD can also help with this issue as it allows all materials to be accessible on their personal devices. Lecturers could also begin to email all materials used during a lecture and/or seminar to student’s personal emails however, this could be time-consuming for faculty staff.

Pause studies completely (11.1%)
Although a bit of time away from studying might sound like a dream for some students, the reality of missing months of university could be detrimental to current and future students. Pausing studies for any amount of time midway through the year could seriously affect a student’s grades and motivation – this is especially unfair for a student who is about to graduate or a student who has put a lot of time and effort into their studies. Also, as with CV19, it could be impossible to judge how long studies would be paused for.

Always provide relevant software (10.1%)
Not having the correct software could also cause issues among students studying from home. For example, a graphic design student may need software such as Photoshop and InDesign – these programs are pretty expensive for a student to buy themselves and they may rely on the university to provide this software. An option would be for universities to supply students with any programs they may need, allowing them to download them on their own devices and therefore use them from any device, wherever they may be.

There isn’t an effective way to prepare (7.5%)
Despite the above options (and possibly more which haven’t been mentioned), some people feel like there isn’t a way to prepare for unforeseen circumstances (such as coronavirus) which will still allow studies to continue and be effective.

One final-year student from Teesside University detailed some of the hurdles she faced following the implementation of online teaching.

“It’s difficult not being there and not being able to speak to lecturers or nip into university when you’re struggling with something.”

Despite the university and her lecturer going out of their way to help, the student said she did not like missing the interaction she had in seminar rooms with everyone and the lecturer. “I felt it was more difficult to ask any questions I had.”

Regardless of how universities have coped with the sudden changes coronavirus has brought, it can be a great situation to learn from and prepare for the future. Implementing some of the above can help ensure students always be prepared for home study.