I get the impression that the author needs to think a bit further outside the box. Simply taking the classroom model and trying to perfectly replicate it in Zo

I get the impression that the author needs to think a bit further outside the box. Simply taking the classroom model and trying to perfectly replicate it in Zoom won't work. Of course. But online learning opens up a whole host of new possibilities that in-person learning is equally unable to replicate. I earned my most recent degree online, from a fully online program, and really appreciated some of the thought they put into creating an online learning experience. One of the key changes was moving toward pre-recorded lectures. This yielded all sorts of fruit. It meant that I, the student, could listen to lectures at a time that worked best for me, rather than being tied to a classroom schedule. Not able to concentrate right now? Fine, take a break and try again later. Morning person? Never have to struggle to stay awake during late afternoon lectures ever again. Evening person? Same for morning lectures. Lecturer's voice dulcet tones and musical prosody make you drowsy, or hard of hearing, or classes not taught in your first language? You, my friend, are going to love the new Transcripts feature. It also greatly reduced the time we needed to spend in classroom sessions, which, in turn, increased our access to personalized instruction by freeing up space in the instructors' schedules for small group and one-on-one meetings with students. I, personally, didn't have difficulty focusing on class during class. I don't know that my classmates did, either. My suspicion is that those studies about students not paying attention were looking at typical online classes, which do consist of the traditional "classroom lectures, only on a screen" model. In which case, I am not at all surprised. Traditional classroom lectures tend to be boring as hell. A live classroom environment creating psychological cues that discourage distraction behavior doesn't fix that problem, it just makes it less apparent to the lecturer. Moreover, with asynchronous, recorded lectures, when my attention wanders (as all attentions will), its no big deal, all I have to do is rewind 30 seconds. In the classroom, if the lecturer says something critical while you were zoned out, too bad, you missed it. The real problem here is that the pandemic has taken teachers who worked under the traditional model, and rudely thrust them into a completely new working environment that requires a radially different approach to the job, and has left them them zero time to adapt. But even a baby you didn't ask for shouldn't be thrown out with the bathwater.