Pandemic Pedagogy: What Works Now and What We Can Keep Using Post-Covid

A full year into the pandemic era, college educators who never expected to be teaching online are learning what works and what doesn’t in the virtual classroom. We’re also starting to reflect on what we’ll be taking with us when we return to traditional face-to-face teaching. 

Drawing on the established scholarship of online teaching and learning, evidence-based best teaching practices, and new insights gained during the emergency pivot to remote instruction, this interactive workshop will energize your current day to day teaching, and give you practical, impactful teaching tools for the future. Through the lens of the five pedagogical practices I detail in my 2019 book Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to be Effective Teachers (West Virginia University Press)—awareness, preparation, reflection, support and practice—we’ll explore some proven, sustainable techniques for strengthening your teaching and social presence in your classes; making your classes more resilient; creating a positive learning environment and class community; making course content accessible and inclusive; and effectively assessing authentic student learning.

Jessamyn Neuhaus is a professor of U.S. history and popular culture at SUNY Plattsburgh and Interim Director of the Plattsburgh Center for Teaching Excellence. Recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, she is the author of Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to be Effective Teachers (West Virginia University Press). In addition to two historical monographs, Jessamyn has published pedagogical, historical, and cultural studies research in numerous anthologies and journals and regularly gives public presentations and workshops on teaching. She is currently an editing an anthology tentatively titled Picture a Professor: Intersectional Teaching Strategies for Interrupting Bias about Faculty and Increasing Student Learning, under contract with West Virginia University Press. An advocate for scholarship on teaching and learning that celebrates infinite diversity in infinite combinations, Jessamyn’s mission as an educational developer is to help faculty nerd out about teaching and to use their big smart brains for increasing pedagogical self-efficacy. Visit her website geekypedagogy.com and find her on Twitter @GeekyPedagogy.