About this Research Topic
Academic teaching is always changing, from medieval times where books were precious and often unique and access was limited to current times when ubiquitous learning using learning management systems, digitalised books and various types of modern learning technologies is widely prevalent. However, academic teaching was still very much focused and defined by traditional lecture halls until the pandemic forced teachers and students alike to transfer every aspect of academic life into what was called emergency remote teaching. While most universities have gone back to face-to-face teaching in the last year, the pandemic era has certainly left traces and is influencing the way academic teaching staff is (re-)thinking how to organise big lectures and large groups of students, how to reshape exams and grading and how to support learning together and improve learning for diverse groups of students.
With our Research Topic, we would like to explore the various ways in which the pandemic has forced educators and researchers to challenge the traditional notions of teaching and learning in the university classroom, and the long-term influence and the possible changes for the future of university teaching and learning. We would like to invite researchers to describe the challenges the concept of teaching in traditional university lecture halls is facing, the lessons they learned from their individual experiences and how the design of university learning and teaching will be shaped for a progressive university practice.
We are welcoming empirical, theoretical and meta-analysis submissions in the areas such as (but not limited to):
- Hybrid synchronous learning activities (and technical as well as educational challenges).
- Big courses and interaction.
- Novel approaches to hands-on, labs and project based courses.
- Innovative use of hardware / software in hybrid synchronous and/or asynchronous learning activities beyond LMS & video conference systems (e.g. tangible user interfaces, customized software applications, classroom orchestration systems).
- How to handle students' current expectations after pandemic practice?
- New formats and media for in person (hybrid) courses.
- Back to pre-pandemic or new normal? Which traditional practices should be preserved and which new practices integrated?
With our Research Topic, we would like to explore the various ways in which the pandemic has forced educators and researchers to challenge the traditional notions of teaching and learning in the university classroom, and the long-term influence and the possible changes for the future of university teaching and learning. We would like to invite researchers to describe the challenges the concept of teaching in traditional university lecture halls is facing, the lessons they learned from their individual experiences and how the design of university learning and teaching will be shaped for a progressive university practice.
We are welcoming empirical, theoretical and meta-analysis submissions in the areas such as (but not limited to):
- Hybrid synchronous learning activities (and technical as well as educational challenges).
- Big courses and interaction.
- Novel approaches to hands-on, labs and project based courses.
- Innovative use of hardware / software in hybrid synchronous and/or asynchronous learning activities beyond LMS & video conference systems (e.g. tangible user interfaces, customized software applications, classroom orchestration systems).
- How to handle students' current expectations after pandemic practice?
- New formats and media for in person (hybrid) courses.
- Back to pre-pandemic or new normal? Which traditional practices should be preserved and which new practices integrated?
Keywords: novel pedagogies, innovative technologies for education, design of physical spaces, roomware, hybrid & blended approaches, student engagement
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
