Abstract:

A nearly twenty-seven-month COVID-19 pandemic caused serious turmoil in teaching, research, and communication. The swift and unexpected shift to online learning, along with social distancing and bans on group gathering, exerted a detrimental effect on established patterns in education. Psychological stress, increased work overload for teachers, motivational fluctuations in students are only part of the hardship academia went through.

However, despite the perceived negative impact of the pandemic on nearly every aspect of our routine, in times of crisis Department of Japanese Studies at Sofia University has managed to make the best of the “situation” in terms of finding fresh opportunities and new avenues for research and project implementation.
The paper gives an account on the number, content and scope of projects conducted by the eight full-time members of the department. Postimplementation-wise, aims, methods and outcomes are discussed extensively.

Thorough analysis is yet to be conducted, it should be noted that afore mentioned teachers` efforts inspired purpose in students in times of post-pandemic. For example, following an unprecedented break of two years, a traditional and major annual event to display students’ talents called Bunkasai (Festival of Japanese Culture), is to be held soon.

The paper aims at evaluating and validating the effort put in project activities that contributed both to producing valuable outcomes during pandemic (online conferences, seminars, digitalized lecture courses, web-based teaching materials etc.), as well as to achievement of high academic goals.

Keywords:

COVID-19, pandemic, stagnation, remote education, project implementation, online seminars, online conferences, digitalized courses, web-based teaching materials.