Hopefully it will be back to Business as Usual, once the pandemic subsides.

My answer is-they will not for a long time. COVID has changed this for the immediate and possibly far future. Academicians who do not realize this are in trouble. It is about time that online education, which saved academe from total ruin for those Universities smart enough to either have online in place already or successfully transition, be given the attention it deserves. It has been considered a stepchild long enough. It is unfortunate that it took a world-wide pandemic to bring this to the fore, but it's happened-and now profs have to change with it, or deal with the vagaries of their Administration. Respectfully submitted.

Nawal I think people would be a bit cautious when face-to-face delivery of teaching and learning resumes post lockdown. As such we may have cases mirroring semblances of social distancing although the actual distances observed may vary from one educational and geographic context to the next. Interesting.

What is interesting is that you are all assuming traditional is going to come back. They may try it, but I still believe delivery will be forever altered in some fashion even if it does-and I don't think it will be popular among students and their families for a long time to come.

our duty as teachers is precisely to find the way to change the way we teach after the covid. we must now take into account the possibility of other pandemics or other health catastrophes. The solution? each in his country and according to the constraints and the means of his university, we must develop another way of teaching. It's up to us to think about it now

Nawal, your answer brings up a good point. I am speaking to US Universities and where they will go-international is quite another matter. Ferial Khaddage, PhD, an acquaintance of mine, is doing research that speaks to this right now in Beirut, Lebanon. They refuse to go over to online and are still encouraging traditional. The results are disastrous. So yes, it all depends on where you are.

it would be interesting to regroup our teacher-researchers around a single project to try to conceive a new method of teaching for these new "y or interest" generation. This will necessarily go through the online courses but not in the current way. the latter is not to the "taste" of our learners

Dear colleagues

At our Faculty we decided and practiced combined lessons i.e. face-to-face and through internet (e-classroom; ZOOM).

Best Regards

Aleksander

The normal return of courses is a little difficult in the current context. These disruptions must be taken into account in the exams. Also, techniques for next year must be planned in advance.

I think we should rely on distance education 50% later And work to find appropriate techniques for students and teachers

how do you think we should examinr our students on-ilne? the problem arises in the case where the students cannot be all connected at the same time to be examined, and this for the simple reason of internet connection problem!!!!!!

Nawal-Your answer suggests that you need to learn more about the online process. The question is raised as to what level of education you are talking about first of all-graduate or undergraduate-and what types of examination. Papers, powerpoints, and the like are the order of the day on a weekly basis as assignments, and there is the signature assignment as the last one which counts most towards the final grade. The idea of the graded exam in a room where the students are being proctored has been tried out for GRE's etc but is not working due to technology glitches. Discussion boards are mandatory, and students have to initiate their own post weekly as well as respond to two other class members to be graded. They must be actively involved in the discussion, and the instructor must monitor this. Multiple choice exams are still used but are now a minimal factor in grading and really just an open book test at this point.

I agree with you Thomas, the problem stems from the fact that our students (a large majority) refuse distance education because it requires more work and research. I think it comes from the fact that they have always been supported in their studies (the applied method does not ask them to think but just to apply) !!!!!

it is a problem of confidence in oneself and in one's ability to adapt to novelty

Thank you, Nawal. There is no reason why instructors can't continue to support students in distance education, and the entire concept of Equity in Online Ed speaks to this-a teamwork approach between students and faculty. But just as much as students have to apply themselves harder (and that is idiosyncratic but should be dealt with just as a prof will deal with a student who doesn't do so in traditional instruction) so do faculty members who are in it as a P/T endeavor adding to their F/T business which is all they really care about.

The system also unfortunately makes online adjuncts cruise for multiple gigs since getting a job does not mean one will actually be assigned a class. I have heard of waiting up to a year for that, and that was pre-COVID. Those instructors who look to these jobs to survive can sacrifice working appropriately with students because of this system inequity.

Finally, there is ego on the part of the instructor in dealing with students who may actually either know more or catch the instructor at mistakes which threatens them. These behavior styles are unacceptable and should be reduced if not eradicated altogether-but we can only do these things one day at a time, I'm afraid.