Since the Covid19 lockdown, several of the classes I was booked on moved online. I’ve written about the experience of online classes elsewhere. Now that there is talk of restrictions being eased, a question presents itself: if and when classes in buildings resume, will I want to go back to that way of doing things?

It seems to me there are advantages and disadvantages of both. At least, the following factors are the ones playing in my mind at the moment:

Advantages of online classes

• I’m eating more healthily. As I don’t have to go further than the front door I am not buying sandwiches or snacks to keep me going.

• I’m saving money. Apart from fares, I am not spending money on food or coffee, or on magazines. (Every time I walk into Liverpool Street Station, WH Smiths the newsagent draws me in like a magnet. I end up buying magazines for articles I manage to convince myself will be useful in some way.)

• It’s easier than I thought it would be to share thoughts and ideas with others in the class.

Advantages of of physical classes

These fall into two (related) categories, the course itself, and the other things surrounding it. All will become clear I hope.

The courses themselves

• The range of courses available has been restricted. For example, courses I’ve especially missed are film study courses, in particular the ones taught by Hilary Smith at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. There is a course about 1960s American cinema at the City Lit, but it seems a bit expensive given that I may end up missing some of it (see next point).

• One benefit of being away from home at the moment is that I’m less likely to miss sessions or bits of sessions because of something arising. I’m also less likely to be late (once or twice I’ve turned up a few minutes late to an online class because the cat suddenly decided it had to go out or be fed or given a cuddle!)

• Interactions between people are definitely better, because you can see their faces more clearly and also pick up on body language. I think also, by extension, it’s easier to make friends in “real life” classes. Group discussions are easier, especially small group discussions, and because of these factors the experience of physical classes has been much richer than their online equivalents.

Other aspects

• As I said in No Escape From The Blues, travelling into London for courses gave me half an hour to myself, given that you can’t receive phone calls on the underground (yet).

• I was getting a lot more exercise then than I am now. Walking from the kitchen to the lounge for an online course doesn’t really count, to be honest. Before, I always made sure I walked quite a bit, rather than travelling only by bus and train.

• I miss the peripheral things I always built into my days in London: visits to the Society of Authors, where I would sometimes pop in and say “Hello” (and ask for a bookmark!), visits to the London Library, meeting friends in coffee bars, spending time in various bookshops….

My conclusion

I suspect that when classes do resume in an actual physical space I will probably attend, mainly because I’d rather do a course than not do one, and because my very last bullet point counts for a lot. However, I think that in the near future travelling time will be tripled at least, given that only around 20% of the capacity on trains will be filled. I’m very happy to walk from Liverpool Street to Holborn — it takes around 40 minutes — but walking from where I live to Liverpool Street would take me a few hours.

Hopefully, adult ed colleges will look seriously at running a hybrid model, whereby people can attend physically if they wish to, but could also attend online instead. Organisations can do that with conferences, so why not with courses? It would take some organising by the college, and some slick technology, but if tutors were willing and able to plan lessons for and teach a hybrid model I should think it would be feasible.