Online Takes Off

The pandemic’s effects on classroom teaching were immediate and binary: given the dangers of viral transmission, courses last March were hurriedly adapted to Zoom, and, last fall, more refined versions of online pedagogy appeared. Health precautions and the collapse of travel similarly put the kibosh on the extensive in-person continuing and executive education programs run by Harvard Business School (HBS), the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Continuing Education (DCE), and similar operations at many of the other professional schools—bringing much of a $500-million growth business to an abrupt halt. But those headline changes have obscured another development. Millions of people with time unexpectedly on their hands found themselves eager for new diversions.