What does this actually mean in practice? At the beginning of the pandemic there were clearly two camps, those that wish to return to previous normality as quickly as possible and those who understood the profound change in the game and were prepared to invest, leading to better productivity, better student experience and guarantee of future growth.

If you participate in any conversation around higher education or the wider education agenda you will hear many similar ideas being discussed and probably very little being actually done. There was a false dawn for institutions thinking they have successfully gone online because they were conducting their business through Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

“In reality what they were doing was adopting a minimal acceptable standard of operation”

In reality what they were doing was adopting a minimal acceptable standard of operation and, in many cases, it was probably well below minimum acceptable standard terms from a student point of view.

There is no doubt that contact through the virtual tools is extremely helpful and probably helps in the retention of students and keeping education on the road. This was not the future of education, simply a way of making sure the wheels stayed on the wagon.

The student centred perspective is a very different proposition. Designing the curriculum from a student choice lens is to approach education in a very different way. The bizarre thing is that we have all known for many years that classrooms are not the way to conduct education, and anyone who has any connection with education will know that there are successful ways of learning like being in the classroom.

So the race is on not so much about creating the new tools but by making the best use of the ones which already exist, and in some cases, not been given sufficient recognition for what they can bring the education space. Many false starts have been made – we can all remember the rush for interactive whiteboards which did nothing for experience, which could not be driven from a laptop plugged into a screen for similar existing display methods.

Some people may remember the Nokia tablet which appears 20 years ago and disappeared because there was no market follow, it was not until the appearance of iPad with the retina screen when suddenly the tablet market took off. There was very little that the iPad can do which the Nokia tablet couldn’t but the user experience was better and the ease of use was the key which led to an explosion in sales for Apple.

If we can expand this to examples of education, there are already lots of good things going on and some will come forward and emerge as the dominant approach. The real challenge, as always, is to be able to identify which are the best horses to back.

“The real excitement is to be exploring the options, testing things out and having discussions with students”

We know what the ingredients are but in terms of the final mix is difficult to say at the moment. We know that online, hybrid, interactivity and convergence of a variety of tools are key but which learning platforms delivery options come through as the winner is not so easy to see a moment.

The real excitement is to be exploring the options, testing things out and having discussions with students, teaching staff and the commercial management teams to see what plays the best. What seems clear is that there will be many fewer players in the future and the solutions that come through as the real winners will probably appear entirely obvious!

About the author: This is a sponsored post from Stuart Bannerman, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor International at London South Bank University.