COVID-19 affected almost every aspect of life—but the education sector was hit particularly hard. For both students and professors, everything had to change to ensure learning could still thrive. With vaccination statistics on the rise and the world opening up again, how should classrooms change post-pandemic?

Technology

The incorporation of technology into learning spaces was vital to keep up with learning during COVID-19, but it doesn’t have to stop there. In the recent past, students wouldn’t be trusted if they had technology with them in their classrooms, but the past year has proven a shift in thinking would be more productive.

Bringing laptops and tablets into more learning spaces gives students access to more effective tools to learn, with digital notes, calculators, and calendars improve productivity.

Hybrid Learning

While learning from home wasn’t ideal for many—and took a long time to get used to—benefits were found along the way. Aside from mitigating health and safety concerns, remote education offered students the ability to work at their own pace. 

The handful of students who saw remote learning as an opportunity to slack off shouldn’t taint the entire process as it goes forward. Instead, new guidelines should be laid out in syllabuses to explain the framework of learning from home.

Combining remote and traditional education can be used to negate the days where all the students are instructed to work on an assignment during class while placing special importance on in-class activities and interactions.

Adaptivity

The most significant takeaway of the response to the pandemic has been the need for adaptivity. If curriculums are designed in a way that allows them to be used remotely or traditionally, there is little that can get in the way of education.

Seating

When students are back to traditional learning, it is essential to ensure the classrooms themselves are structured thoughtfully. Updating seating and other furniture to account for the physical and mental comfort of students is a forward-thinking way to keep in mind the needs of a modern classroom.

There is a lot to think about when it comes to adapting to the new challenges in education, but now that you know some of the ways classrooms should change post-pandemic, you can begin to make your learning space more efficient and effective.