COVID-19 has accelerated a large number of changes in the working world, including learning and development for professionals. Just as for younger students, education for adults has moved online, bringing assorted challenges and benefits.

For a closer look at some of the impacts on adult education, People Matters asked Tomoya Nakamura, the Dean of Tokyo-based graduate business school GLOBIS University, how the university has been coping with the COVID-19 situation and how deep the changes might end up going.

Online learning: a change that had been coming for some time

Back at the beginning of March, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had requested all schools to cease on-campus activities, meaning that they had to take classes online. GLOBIS managed the transition over a single weekend, and according to Dean Nakamura, other universities have also been quick to move classes online.

"It is a change that had been in the early stages of integration for many institutions," he said. "We have long dived into digital alternatives, and our students are proving how adaptable they can be."

Home-based learning for students is one thing, but for educators, the gap between face-to-face classroom interaction and online teaching presents considerable challenges. Keeping students engaged during a virtual lecture, for example, can be quite different from keeping them engaged during a physical class.

Dean Nakamura shared, however, that GLOBIS has actually been offering online MBA courses since 2017, meaning that a number of faculty and staff already had experience and knowledge with virtual learning, and were able to share their skills with their colleagues. They even exchanged tips on how to encourage students to hold social gatherings online, duplicating the gatherings that would normally take place after class on the physical campus.

Similarly, the university was able to train a number of non-operations staff—who had been left at loose ends by the campus closure—to support the online classes. That resolved the other major problem they faced in the transition, a shortage of online operations staff. "We created an online class manual for operations staff and held information sessions to disseminate the know-how to other non-operations staff," he explained.

"In the end, I believe it came down to trust and unity among the staff to pull this all together."

Culture and mission helps smoothen the transition

"Our founder, Mr. Yoshito Hori, created GLOBIS to pave the way for change and innovation," Dean Nakamura said. "The ability to prepare and expect risks and changes in the modern workplace has become crucial, especially for both businesses and individuals. It also became the backbone for GLOBIS to remain afloat at this unprecedented time."

Both faculty and staff, he said, have embraced the notion of entrepreneurial spirit, and that contributed to the speed and rapidity of their adaptation. "When we need to make a bold move quickly, we will do so. Because this has been the history and DNA of GLOBIS, I believe that everyone knew that we would do everything to make this conversion to online classes happen."

He shared some steps the university has taken to help students make the best of the transition:

• Encouraging them to use the time studying at home to reflect on their kokorozashi, a concept that translates literally as "intention" or "resolve". GLOBIS contextualizes it as someone's personal mission in life and a part of leadership development.

• Encouraging them to invest time in their fields of interest, by using their additional time to read up and learn more.

• Supporting them in career planning, including milestones and challenges, their values and goals for the future—which may be critical in the economic recession predicted to worsen in the rest of 2020.

"Finally, we motivate them to help others and share their talents," he added. "Hard times are an opportunity to cultivate our humanity."

The future of learning might be online, if properly designed

Asked about how well positioned higher education might be for a digital future, Dean Nakamura said: "I believe that live online classes have great potential. This is because in an on-campus interactive class, there is only one live discussion flow: that is either faculty-to-students, or students-to-students at any one time. However, online classes have two discussion flows. One is online live discussions, and the other is discussions through chat that happens simultaneously. Thus, there is a more diverse set of opinions and openings for faculty to seize. In my view, that adds more learning opportunities for both students and faculty."

However, he also pointed out that online learning brings its own set of challenges.

"Due to the nature of the technological format, it is difficult to concentrate for a long period of time," he said. "Thus, the faculty needs to design classes that encompass both exhalation (brainstorming and sharing ideas) and inhalation (listening and reflections)."

This concept of balance and providing deliberate, regulated opportunities for both external and internal expressions of learning, he added, is similar to the art of aikido—of which he himself is a practitioner.

And as difficult as the past months have been, he believes that COVID-19 has brought some real benefits to education. Firstly, it has helped people realize the need for good planning—"Educational institutions should rethink their infrastructures," he remarked. "This is to gear towards improving and accommodating similar instances in the future."

Just as importantly, it has helped with individual self-awareness. "I believe the lockdown has made people, including our students, realize what their true needs are. Thus, I believe it will further the quest towards kokorozashi (personal mission) and ESG (what is right for society)."

Besides these, he pointed out that COVID-19 has also given rise to multiple new trends that have applications and implications far beyond the immediate needs of the pandemic situation: the use of technology to help prevent spread of the virus and to distribute masks and protective garments, the shift to virtual gatherings and even video-facilitated exercise.

"Because many people have already experienced these changes, I believe that future students will ask for the same type of convenience and just-in-time delivery," Dean Nakamura predicted. "Education needs to reinvent itself to meet new customer demands."