In this article, the author describes the use of a storytelling approach in a learning design with significant asynchronous elements. This approach was introduced in an upper-level international trade course with close to 200 students in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As most live "lectures" took place online and were subject to…

COVID-19 struck the world suddenly and unexpectedly. Since traditional education requires face-to-face communication, to avoid further spreading of the virus a majority part of that education has moved online. Our study attempts to compare the differences between online medical education with a unique course design and traditional face-to-face…

This reflective essay discusses my experience over one year during the COVID-19 global pandemic. I analyze my experiences teaching and my observations of students, concluding that the affordances of blended learning can be useful for engaging multilingual students, and that such engagement allows for more time for formative feedback for students.…

In February 2020, the author was offered a position as a postdoctoral teaching fellow at a large land-grant college in the American West. A couple weeks later, COVID-19 hit in full force. As the newly hired postdoctoral teaching fellow, the author's department chair tasked the author with a challenging assignment -- to develop an asynchronous…

This research considers the synchronous creation of a faculty meta-ensemble emergent in the pivot to online music ensembles in 2021. The unit of study outline for Music Ensemble Performance mandates live ensembles in a Kolb-inspired experiential learning model, seemingly impossible to achieve in a pandemic. Eric Ries advocates for necessary change…

The COVID-19 crisis upended the typical college experience as educational institutions had to close campuses and send students home mid-semester in the spring of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic left educators around the world with limited choices on how to move forward with high quality education for all. This abrupt closing of higher education…

Early online course materials were text-based and relied heavily on discussion forums as the de facto tool for interactions. Faculty members today, however, have many other choices for course design and course materials. There is not consensus for online course design guidelines or principles, though. Choices in course design by faculty members…

The recent pandemic compelled educational institutions all over the world to shift to online instruction. And now institutions find themselves trying to answer questions like how should we proceed when we come back to normal? Which online instructional innovations should we keep? This research attempts to answer those questions by comparing three…

Every year, class representatives are elected at the University of Cape Town to represent students on academic matters in relation to a specific academic course. A vital element of this representative role is to advocate for an enabling learning environment that promotes learning excellence. In preparing class representatives for their leadership…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a rapid transition from face-to-face to distance learning. The problems caused by this rapid transition are combined with the negative psychological outcomes of the pandemic, leading to numerous problems and difficulties in the teaching and learning processes. The recentness of these issues and developments…

Purpose: The authors present the first author's recent experience as a design case, capturing approach and principles to transitioning a course from in-person to remote modality while maintaining its collaborative, synchronous and dialogic nature. Design/methodology/approach: A mathematical content course for preservice teachers at a mid-Western…

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020, educators at all levels faced the challenge of responding to student needs and utilizing technology for instruction. While much of the emerging research highlights the experiences of students and instructors as they shifted from face-to-face to remote learning, this study explored the…

Blended learning has a muddled history but is still evolving. Technological innovations and the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 led higher education to create a new blend to blended learning, one that did not follow the generally accepted and most numerous definitions or previous examples of blended learning. This new blend of blended learning lacks the…

Teacher education programs all around the world are challenged with the emergency transition to remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Human-centered design can help generate creative solutions to the pedagogical problems that teacher educators face during this transition. In this paper, we present a case of the Advanced Learning…

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives, including instruction in the higher education system. In this sudden and stressful change, faculty had to explore different opportunities and technologies to continue to deliver quality instruction to their students. Instructional design has always been an important topic for education…