How are Universities are coping with the New Normal during and after the Pandemic: Sharing of Practices, Research and Reflections from Singapore and Asia

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought about challenges for universities to continue the education they are providing even as students have to stay out of campus for most of the lessons. The lockdowns in schools and universities have necessitated emergency responses in the quick adoption of online and blended learning. Practices have quickly emerged such as the movement of examinations and yearly admission exercises to online, and live hybrid learning in which instructors become TV show hosts, teaching students in-person in the classroom as well as students watching the lecture live online. Indeed, more opportunities arise to bring about educational change or paradigm shifts that were once out of reach. Some universities have used the pandemic as an opportunity to re-define the intent and curricula of their undergraduate education.

In this talk, I will discuss some of the policies and strategies that universities have adopted to continue undisrupted learning, speaking from a Singapore perspective and also sharing examples from elsewhere in Asia. From these varied practices and supplemented by reported research studies, we will tease out new salient understandings from a learning sciences perspective.