Tag Archives: Coronavirus Pandemic

The new normal

March 14, 2021|Times Colonist via UVic News

We’re now a year into the pandemic, however, with vaccinations becoming more frequent, there is hope for a return to normal living. But what might “normal” look like? Numerous experts warn it will not be the same as before, and some of the changes may remain in place long-term. Including hybrid workplace programs (from both home and office).

Whatever the post-pandemic world looks like, [Saul] Klein said it’s not likely to be starkly different from what is happening now.

“We won’t see a big-bang solution,” he said. “There is likely to be a gradual resumption, and even once the rules start to diminish, the behavioural patterns we have established over the last year will not disappear.”

Saul Klein, Dean of the Gustavson School of Business at the University of Victoria, is one of the many experts weighing in on what our post-pandemic world may look like and what will be needed for businesses to succeed and people to feel financially stable. The Copyright and Scholarly Communications Office encourages you to visit Dr. Klein’s publications through UVic’s institutional repository, UVicSpace, and browse his other works both in the repository and his ORCID profile.

Featured research: Emergency remote education and COVID-19

A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19 pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis

By Aras Bozkurt, et al.

Two UVic researchers are co-authors on this open access paper: Valerie Irvine and Michael Paskevicius.

Abstract:

Uncertain times require prompt reflexes to survive and this study is a collaborative reflex to better understand uncertainty and navigate through it. The Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic hit hard and interrupted many dimensions of our lives, particularly education. As a response to interruption of education due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this study is a collaborative reaction that narrates the overall view, reflections from the K-12 and higher educational landscape, lessons learned and suggestions from a total of 31 countries across the world with a representation of 62,7% of the whole world population. In addition to the value of each case by country, the synthesis of this research suggests that the current practices can be defined as emergency remote education and this practice is different from planned practices such as distance education, online learning or other derivations. Above all, this study points out how social injustice, inequity and the digital divide have been exacerbated during the pandemic and need unique and targeted measures if they are to be addressed. While there are support communities and mechanisms, parents are overburdened between regular daily/professional duties and emerging educational roles, and all parties are experiencing trauma, psychological pressure and anxiety to various degrees, which necessitates a pedagogy of care, affection and empathy. In terms of educational processes, the interruption of education signifies the importance of openness in education and highlights issues that should be taken into consideration such as using alternative assessment and evaluation methods as well as concerns about surveillance, ethics, and data privacy resulting from nearly exclusive dependency on online solutions.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
This article was originally published at:
10.5281/zenodo.3878571
Bozkurt, A., Jung, I., Xiao, J., Vladimirschi, V., Schuwer, R., Egorov, G., Lambert, S. R., … &
Paskevicius, M. (2020). A global outlook to the interruption of education due to COVID-19
pandemic: Navigating in a time of uncertainty and crisis. Asian Journal of Distance
Education, 15(1), 1-126. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3878572.

To read more, visit UVicSpace