A G D The change it had to come.
Synchronous, asynchronous, blended, flipped, virtual, augmented.
These terms have been around for a long time. People have learned online for a long time.
For many years, before Covid, expensive schools told us face-to-face was better than online, blended or others and charged learners a premium for their version of it.
Come to us, it’s better, we’re better. Our badge has more value than others’.
So much better that many universities opened branches in Aisa for face-to-face, premium-priced learning.
During Covid and lockdowns, they all had to flip, and still they said, We give the same quality, premium learning, but now online, at same the same high fees. Stay with us, it’s better, we’re better. Our badge still has more value than others’.
High-school leaving exams in the U.K. were cancelled in the summer of 2020, but universities accepted students anyway. Not based on exam results, but on the basis of the offers they had made to individuals.
Wales has cancelled national exams for 16- and 18-year-olds for 2021.
If Welsh students get British university places that students from England, Scotland and elsewhere had to attain ‘A’ Levels or Highers to achieve, an imbalance will continue, for at least four years. There could well be repercussions, perhaps even lawsuits.
Dan Davies, former Bank of England economist and investment banking analyst has said, “Coronavirus has demonstrated how fragile an exam-based system can be in a crisis, but it’s also given us some telling insight into whether high-stakes examinations are any use at all.”
They aren’t. Tests are wrong. Exams – Ordinary, Advanced, Higher – are wrong. Grades are wrong. Assessment should always be individual.
Learning is more important than education and can happen anywhere, anytime, with anyone in any way.