Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 39 to 43.

Education has been the focus of media attention since the virus has intermittently closed classrooms and campuses over the past year. But despite the disruption, the widespread shift to online learning has given learners and education providers a glimpse of the future.

For our latest Better Managers Briefing, I spoke with Paul Geddes – CEO of technology training provider QA; and Tim Stewart – the vice chancellor of BPP University and a professor of business education.

Taking education online was the first and most obvious short-term delivery impact of the pandemic. For example, Tim says that for him and BPP as an awarding body, the biggest accomplishment was being able to move assessments online, enabling thousands of students to sit hundreds of exams under supervision and be able to continue gaining credits and to graduate. “Inevitably, after the pandemic, some of this will move back offline,” he predicts, “but I think we will see a much more significant role for online teaching, online assessment, online socializing and online libraries.”

Mixing “on-demand” digital delivery with live online learning has been essential at QA, says Paul. “For learners, live lessons mean that you’re more likely to turn up, you're focused, you're going to pay attention and not be distracted… because your trainer could ask you a question at any time,” he says. “You can ask questions, you're part of a cohort that can learn from each other and the subject matter can be tailored to your understanding.” Paul believes, “If you're in a cohort of learners, it’s still important that you can have a cup of coffee with them and chat through what you’ve just learned in class. But I don’t think things will return fully to where they were in terms of physical attendance.”

(Source: https://www.managers.org.uk/)

The word “them” in paragraph 4 refers to __________.