It has been said that disruption breeds opportunity. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted higher education in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Educators responded in dynamic fashion to embrace innovative changes in teaching and learning. As we move into the post-pandemic era, it is essential that we examine how teaching and learning in higher education will forever benefit from our sudden, immersion into virtual education.

A manageable place to start is to revisit common instructional issues in an effort to adapt our long-held strategies to be more student-centered and effective.

Project Origin

This project is a collaborative endeavor of our working group in the 2022 OLC IELOL Global Program (Online Learning Consortium; Emerging Leadership in Online Learning).

The purpose of this faculty guide is to offer ideas and suggestions for how to address common instructional issues in a manner that more effectively meets students' needs in the post-pandemic era. The guide provides an overview of each topic along with practical strategies, contextual considerations, and resources to assist faculty in proactively fostering an effective, innovative student learning experience.

This faculty guide explicitly targets three of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

#3 – Good Health and Well-Being

#4 – Quality Education

#8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth

Objectives

1) Spur faculty dialogue about how to create teaching and learning activities that meet the cognitive and psychosocial needs of students in the post-pandemic classroom.

2) Offer concrete, doable strategies for faculty to create a more student-centered learning environment.

3) Empower faculty to reconsider their own instruction and assessment practices in a manner that embraces students as active collaborators in the teaching and learning dynamic.