9th Annual Winterfest | Teaching in times of COVID: Adapting to the remote university

Self-care is the essence of maintaining mental health, emotional well-being, and physical health. Intentional self-care is key to help faculty cope with the challenges of remote teaching. This panel discussion is intended to help faculty rethink their self-care routines with strategies and practical skills on wellness, self-care, and work-life balance from health promotion specialists, psychologists, and faculty.

Panel Moderator: Dr. Philippe Caignon, Associate Dean, Student Academic Services and Academic Director, CTL

Andrea Cartile is an Engineering PhD student and Teaching Assistant at Concordia University. Having collected a few sporadic anecdotes from students on how the Fall 2020 semester was progressing, and having seen and experienced the exceptionally high faculty teaching workload, Andrea decided to launch a survey to collect and centralize student perception. The objective of this survey was to collect an overview of both positive outcomes of online learning, and ways in which the Winter 2021 semester could be improved for both students and faculty. 

This Winterfest session will have two parts: the first will be to present the results of this survey, which received about 800 student responses over a span of 3 weeks. The second part of the session will be a consultation, providing a space for faculty to discuss the results of the survey and offer suggestions for improvement for the Winter 2021 semester.

We cannot replicate our classroom courses in Zoom, but we can develop approaches to create a positive and productive remote teaching and learning experience. This panel will host faculty who share some practices they have adopted to help them engage students, reconcile with teaching to the ‘black boxes’, and build a sense of community in their remote classrooms.

Panel Moderator: Carol Hawthorne, Curriculum Developer, Centre for Teaching and Learning

Moving courses online requires instructors to rethink many of the aspects of teaching and assessing students and through the process, we’ve learned a few lessons. This panel will host faculty who will discuss some of the ways they adapted their courses for the online environment. As they reflect on these past nine months online, they will share how these adaptations worked (or didn’t work).

Panel Moderator: Alicia Cundell, Teaching Consultant, Centre for Teaching and Learning