Veletsianos on coming back better

As the traditional beginning of the academic year approaches, Royal Roads education expert Prof. George Veletsianos shares in The Conversation Canada what he and colleagues have learned in their research on the hopes and expectations of Canadian university students and faculty.

Here’s an excerpt from his article:

Over the last year and a half, my colleagues and I have interviewed faculty across Canada and sifted through surveys gathering the opinions of nearly 150,000 Canadian students. We have also surveyed faculty and administrators in the United States multiple times about their experiences with teaching and learning during the pandemic. Most recently, we have returned to interviewing faculty across Canada to learn more about their hopes and fears.

We heard that many of our students and colleagues are anxious, tired and disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Students and faculty recognize that the pre-pandemic “normal” wasn’t optimal. It was simply the status quo, the default, that students and faculty were living with.

What faculty and students hope for is that their colleges, universities and governments support them as they seek to carry forward what they learned and experienced during the pandemic. They are hoping the lessons of the pandemic aren’t fleeting. Some of these lessons appear below.

Read the full article in The Conversation Canada.