Navigating Challenges: Teaching and Learning Through a Pandemic

As the pandemicPandemic evolves, educators and students find themselves compelled to remain receptive and adaptable to various novel and unfamiliar teaching and learning approaches. While closely listening to the experiences shared by faculty and studentsStudents regarding classroom practices, both in terms of opportunities and challengesChallenges, we worked together at Georgia Southern University to adapt and explore the fields of teaching and learning. Our strategic plan at Georgia Southern is to “grow ourselves to grow others.” Therefore, we invest in people and their aspirations, ultimately benefiting our students, faculty, staff, administrators, and the broader community we serve. One opportunity and challenge we faced as educators, especially during the pandemic and other unplanned disruptions, was adapting to new situations while following our institution’s robust rules and policies. Several positive opportunitiesOpportunities arose from this adaptationAdaptation, such as close collaborationsCollaboration, consistent communication between faculty and students, and improved student engagement in online coursesOnline courses. In addition, the institution provided helpful strategies and methods to teach remotely, in person, or in a hybrid approach to ensure uninterrupted academic progress and training efforts. Another noteworthy opportunity and challengeChallenges stemming from the pandemic was the need to explore new teaching and learning methodologies. This article delves into an analysis of student engagement and a unique teaching and learning strategy for inquiry, application, and assessment that the professor and students perfected to navigate these unprecedented circumstances more effectively. The focus remains on teaching and learning, evaluated from the perspectives of both educators and studentsStudents.