Due to the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) crisis, the University of Amsterdam faced a sudden need to shift our education to online learning. We experienced that radical impact given that we were amid efforts to restructure one of our courses in March, 2020. That restructuring, which focused on improved cooperative learning, would have required contact-based education. The sudden COVID-based shift to online learning limited the opportunities for cooperation, mutual knowledge sharing, and inspiration. Students needed more intensive stimulus to stay involved and active. We understood that more focus on evaluation helps educators to obtain better insight into the learning progress of students and to adapt the educational processes to improve students' learning outcomes and their learning journey. We realized that traditional end-of-course evaluation alone does not suffice the new requirements of online education. We saw a need for continuous evaluations during the course to monitor the learning trajectory that students followed. In this paper, we share our experience about the changing role of evaluation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and describe how evaluating effectiveness, success, efficiency impacts the online work with students.
It is a fact of life that the world changes. This constant change raises an important question about the role of managers, leaders and organisations in society. Society forms the context for human development. Society, or in a broader sense, the world we live, will always last longer than any individual or organisation. Striving for short-term individual welfare cannot be an objective in the long run. Introducing the ‘Me-We-All’-approach in this opinion paper, we highlight the need to find a balance between individuals and organisations within the ever-changing context of our society. We discuss the role of management and leadership in creating more sustainable organisations and a better world. We analyse the complex relationship between individuals (Me), organisations/communities/networks (We) and society (All). The volatile requirements harm clear objectives/strategies and finding a balance for different perspectives. These stakeholders’ different roles and positions show conflicts of interest, contradicting challenges in a dynamic playing field. Developments within and in the vicinity of organisations demand significantly more attention as they influence organisations with an immense or even disruptive effect on and by individuals. Finally, organisational interactions have emerging impacts on society. Dealing with developments on the three identified levels cannot be elucidated in a single and unified way. We are in the middle of a paradigm shift from a Me-We perspective to a We-All one with attention to sustainability and circularity on a physically finite planet.
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