Abstract:

Across the higher education landscape, there is a growing sense of a return to normalcy following the unprecedented disruption caused by the novel coronavirus, and the disease it causes (COVID-19). COVID-19 disrupted the traditional model of higher education and some of the lessons learned from the pandemic-enforced transition to remote instruction will have a long-lasting influence on teaching and learning practices for decades to come.

Academic institutions across the globe have now welcomed students back to campus and many of these students returning to campus and face-to-face instruction do so with heightened expectations. Students have missed the social interaction of in-person classes, however those students anticipating a return to traditional pre-pandemic learning will discover a “new normal” post-pandemic model of higher education.

Students returning to campus will find that teaching strategies have evolved, and that many resilient faculty have learned new behaviors and competencies, either from institutionally organized professional development activities, or from their own endeavors. During the pandemic-induced pivot to emergency remote instruction, many faculty awakened to the realization that student engagement was critical to their academic success. Consequently, some faculty reinvented themselves, and seized the opportunity to re-design course content, refine their digital pedagogy and enhance course delivery models to better integrate technology to meet the changing needs of today’s global learners.

Some of the strategies employed to support student engagement, learning and success during the pandemic-enforced period of remote instruction should be retained as students return to campus.

These strategies include:
1) Trauma informed pedagogy and teaching with empathy. During the pandemic, many faculty adopted trauma-informed teaching practices to reduce cognitive overload, as they delivered their classes remotely during the pandemic using their institutional Learning Management System (LMS). Teaching with empathy helped students to overcome the trauma and challenges presented by the pandemic to allow them to reach their learning goals.
2) Increased variety of authentic assessment. During the pandemic, there was much discussion about assessment, examination proctoring, academic integrity, cheating and plagiarism as institutions were forced to transition from face-to-face to online assessments. Striking a balance between supporting student mental health and privacy concerns, while eliminating cheating and maintaining academic integrity represented a global challenge to higher education.
3) Establishing a learning community. Teaching during the pandemic taught us the importance of establishing a culture of trust and a sense of togetherness, community and belonging within our own online learning environment.

The pivot to remote instruction provided teachers with an opportunity for self-assessment and evaluation of their teaching practices. The teaching and learning adjustments made by some faculty during the pandemic and described in this article have been rewarded with increased student engagement and satisfaction, and many of these teaching adjustments should be continued now that we have returned to campus. A return to pre-pandemic direct instruction should not be an option, the future of education is at stake.

Keywords:

Student engagement, formative assessment, learning community, trauma-informed pedagogy.