The “New Normal”: Lessons Learned from the COVID Age and New Approaches for Spring

Thanks to everyone who joined our The “New Normal” webinar on December 1, 2020.

Here is a video of the complete webinar:

Packback and the New England Board of Higher Education have partnered together for the upcoming webinar The “New Normal”: Lessons Learned From the COVID Age and New Instructional Approaches for Spring.

After the COVID-19 pandemic forced an urgent shift to online learning this spring, colleges and universities are now making their way through a fall semester that is, for many institutions, almost completely remote. The “new normal” has brought with it a host of new questions: Is it possible to foster student engagement in an online setting? How can students, not to mention faculty and staff, stay motivated with limited face-to-face interaction? These unprecedented challenges, however, also present surprising opportunities, and many institutions have seen their online programs succeed in unexpected ways. For many programs, the use of enhanced technology like Packback, an online discussion platform equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) instructional support technology, has enabled instructors to improve student curiosity, drive engagement, and strengthen critical thinking skills through rigorous online discussion.

Michael Graves, Associate Chair and Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell; Kathleen Ives, Director of Higher Education at the National Laboratory for Education Transformation (NLET) and Former CEO at Online Learning Consortium; and Maris Lown, Vice President for Academic Affairs at Union County College in New Jersey, came together to explore the lessons they’ve learned from a unique and challenging fall semester, how these takeaways will apply to the spring, and how Packback has played a critical role in the transition to remote learning.