Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic deeply changed people’s life on our planet, and education was no exception.

The drastic reduction in outside activities and people’s close interactions, quickly followed by a universal and mandatory lock-down, completely disrupted human normal daily activities and all levels of education activity were severely impacted. The problem was much more complicated in the Academia setting where direct human interactions are essential. The Higher Education institutions exerted strong and skilled leadership to integrate both the in-podium, facing students, easily accessible professors, and the attentive, auditorium-seated students into the successful conversion from the traditional in-person learning activity to the completely new and unknown remote learning.

The end of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a return to normal reality and activities. Education, at all levels, restored the traditional in-person classes. Higher Education has clearly struggled to successfully implement a full return to in-person learning. It will take a strong will and precise and effective leadership from the Universities and college leaders to move the students from the comfort of their homes and laptops or phones back to the classroom; something also applicable to the faculty that should resume long commuting and classroom hours.

This paper presents a comprehensive multi-pronged approach to achieve the full return to the traditional in-person learning.

Keywords:

COVID-19 pandemic, remote learning, reshaping lecture delivery, return to normalcy, back to the classroom.