VIU students participated in a virtual event on Thursday, April 8 hosted by SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue alongside students from all over BC about what worked and what didn’t in regards to online learning in the past year. Staff from the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training observed as well.

Highlights from the event include that students spoke about how online and asynchronous learning increases accessibility for students and government funding is needed to maintain a well-functioning online platform. The shift to online by most institutions demonstrated that the capacity for rapid and drastic change is possible and is something students should remember going forward. The pandemic has also revealed that education can, and should, be more community and support based versus strictly valued on infrastructure. A full report will be circulated soon with information collected from the event.