Seventeenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

As a result of restrictions following the COVID19 pandemic in March 2020, universities globally carried out a mass transition to online instruction, or what might be called the ‘Great Transition’. Traditionally bricks and mortar institutions, in many cases moved to 100% delivery of classes, facilitated by various online learning systems (Moodle, Blackboard etc.), and complemented by videoconferencing platforms, such as zoom etc. With this transition, for some, extensive investment was made in 2 broad areas, online instructional pedagogies, as well as equity, diversity and inclusion training initiatives. Looking specifically at online pedagogical techniques, this position paper presents initiatives, in particular for communication and media studies, but applicable in other disciplines, in primarily online Zoom based synchronous classes. Such techniques include individual news summaries in live sessions, group project presentations and use of Google docs for live free-write activities connected to breakout room discussions. Common challenges shared in the months following March 2020, included loss of sense of community with online transition, however this paper argues that this transitional challenge has now been replaced with a new norm of online classes, and which, given effective pedagogical techniques, has indeed enhanced student interaction engagement and sense of community alongside greater flexibility, in particular for non-traditional students, who are increasingly making up a greater proportion of the student population in the US, as a result of the demographic cliff, as well as enhanced preparation for careers that have, in many cases transitioned to working with remote teams, and with online presentations.