Abstract:

The world of higher education will never be the same after the coronavirus pandemic. A rushed transition to entirely online teaching in February 2020 orchestrated by university administration requiring instructors with very minimal or no knowledge at all of online delivery, to switch to virtual delivery of their courses. Those courses that had been designed based on an in-class approach were not easily transformed and it had to be done within a week. Some professors adapted easily, while others struggled. However, on the students’ side, a major exercise of adaptation and unanticipated isolation was suddenly required. Since the virus situation did not improve rapidly, the following semesters continued with the same pattern. Many students started their programs of study in their home country, only meeting their classmates virtually. Feelings of isolation and lack of motivation were observed in many research, while for other students, the new pedagogy and new learning tools helped them continue to be successful. After more than two years of Covid restrictions, campuses reopened in September 2022 but teaching and learning did not return to the pre-pandemic situation. In this research we explore what constitutes the new normal.
An online survey was developed and conducted in introductory analytics classes in the MBA program at a Canadian university in the Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 semesters to identify the characteristics of the return to campus. Demographics, attitudes, impact of learning tools as well as absenteeism are analyzed and text mining methodology is used to analyze students’ answers to open ended questions concerning their return to campus and the challenges of the new reality. Results show that certain learning tools created during the pandemic proved to be very useful in the face-to-face environment and students’ absenteeism is often due to health, personal difficulties and to the challenges of re-organizing their family

Keywords:

Online teaching and learning, absenteeism, face-to-face environment.