The Development of Online Learning in Israeli Higher Education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic that swept through the world in 2020 and forced the various higher education institutions in Israel and around the world to promptly embrace the online teaching method, placed on the agenda the question of this method’s efficacy as well as deliberations regarding its future implications. The current study reviews the development of online teaching in Israel’s higher education and examines whether this development derives from an organized and well-formulated public policy with a view to the future or is the result of the constraints and various actors within the free market. In addition, the study presents a case study of an academic institution, examining the opinions of students with regard to the benefits and shortcomings of online teaching. The research findings indicate that the development of online teaching in Israel is the result of needs, constraints, and opportunities that emerged in the free market rather than a result of organized public policy by the Ministry of Education and the Council for Higher Education. Consequently, the study presents the various implications of these unregulated developments for the quality of teaching and for student satisfaction. The study illuminates a thorough discussion that should be conducted by movers of higher education and academic institutions concerning a new effective designation of the campuses following the COVID-19 crisis as well as the distinction between virtual and real-life dimensions of academic teaching.