The Positive Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The Covid-19 Pandemic significantly disrupted every aspect of human life and has produced an unprecedented hardship on education. The COVID-19 Pandemic created challenges for professors of higher education on multiple levels not limited to teaching, scholarship, and service. Using an Autoethnographic case study with a Social theory symbolic interactionist paradigm, the author explores and reflects on professional and personal experiences encountered during the COVID-19 Pandemic between March 2020 through the fall 2020 semester and beyond. The author describes interactions with students, adjusting her research plan, and pivoting to include COVID-19 in service projects. Although this paper has not covered any statistical analysis on the impact of Covid-19 on higher education, similar accounts can be found and have been cited in the literature. These reflections are unable to offer systemic answers to challenges facing higher education. However, these experiences and feelings will provide important inputs to global discussions, lessons learned, and best practices about the future of higher education, after Covid-19.