Bouncing Forward from COVID in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper is a call to arms to bounce forward in the classroom as we emerge from the COVID crisis. The predominant return to in-person classes in higher education should not be a return to the same normal classroom conditions that existed prior to the pandemic. In the last 2+ years, we have come an extraordinarily long way in our abilities and in our inclinations to employ technologies and techniques in a blended classroom environment that truly improves the learning experience. In this paper, we call for and contribute to such an effort. Tying into the abundance of literature dealing with the COVID educational environment, we present our findings and ideas from carefully studying our own faculty. We summarize our overall findings as well as describe in detail three general categories that we believe hold great promise for improving the higher education classroom in the post-crisis era, namely digital chalkboards / screen sharing; remote participation and collaboration; and a paperless classroom. We argue that educators have an obligation and opportunity to not simply return to pre-crisis methods.