The Christchurch earthquake has challenged long-held beliefs about tertiary teaching, Otago Polytechnic chief executive Phil Ker says.
He and his senior staff have been in close contact with Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT), whose central city Madras St campus was badly damaged in the February 22 earthquake.
CPIT has relocated some classes to its Sullivan St and Riccarton campuses and moved its business studies students to Lincoln.
Out of necessity, the face-to-face classroom teaching component of many courses had been reduced by about 20%, replaced by online and other forms of learning, Mr Ker told the recent polytechnic council meeting. Teaching staff had assured the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and students teaching quality would not be affected.
Because CPIT had lost six weeks of the first semester, it had also been given permission by TEC to reduce the first semester to 10 weeks.
It was "interesting what a crisis does to long-held beliefs", Mr Ker said.
"If you haven't got the class contact time, you have to invent other ways of doing things."
There had been a wide-spread belief in the tertiary sector that reducing class contact time may affect quality, a belief he did not subscribe to, he said.
Mr Ker said the CPIT's response to the earthquake had shown alternatives models of educational delivery were possible.
About 20 CPIT students had transferred to Otago Polytechnic, he said.
After the meeting he said he expected they would remain in the city for the rest of this year.
