As a junior economics reporter, I was once given an assignment which made me panic. I had been asked to write a story about an economic concept I didn’t really understand. No one else from my team was around. Googling it only left me more confused. Just then, Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, walked past my desk. I took a deep breath and asked him. He explained it clearly in a few sentences, and if he thought I was silly for having to ask, he never made me feel that way.Ever since then, I have been a big believer in asking “stupid” questions, by which I mean questions that you fear make you look stupid. But I’m worried this is a dying art.

It has never been easy, of course. Lecturers have always found that the best questions from students, the ones they worry might be daft but are actually very useful, tend to come during breaks, or on the walk between buildings after the lecture has ended.

When teaching moved online after the pandemic started, those opportunities disappeared. But many academics and trainers discovered that online tools actually made it easier for some students to ask about the things that confused them. Suddenly, they could type questions in the chat box or send a direct message to the lecturer, rather than put their hand up and ask in front of everyone.