The Teaching and Learning Innovation Digest - May 2023

e/TURN REFLECTIONS
Post-pandemic “forever changes”, what endures,
Dr. Marilyn Herie
Vice President Academic (VPA) and Chief Learning Officer (CLO)
This year’s Digest theme of “re/TURN” offers
a vast canvas to reflect on what it means to
emerge from a historic global event. There has
been no shortage of articles, reports, books,
and other media parsing the implications,
impacts, and lessons learned. Some of these
more latterly include post-pandemic ‘forever
changes’ to higher education (for example, see
Dennis, 2022).
These changes have been both cataclysmic
and catalytic, as we’ve experienced a decade
of change accelerated into mere weeks
and months. One undeniably major trend is
that of the “student-consumer”, felt prior to
March 2020, and now even further amplifying
students’ expectations of highly flexible and
personalized learning and support services,
that is, “optionality” (Selingo, 2022). The push
toward hyflex and hybridity in all their
numerous forms challenges virtually every
aspect of how we teach, learn, work, provide/
obtain services, and engage. Another “forever
change” is the recognition of mental health
needs as being absolutely on par with physical
health. The stressors and impacts of COVID-19
lockdowns, forced online learning, widening
social/economic/racial/occupational/health/+++
inequities have resulted in a “shadow
pandemic” of mental health sequelae that will
reverberate for years, perhaps even decades,
to come.
Other changes, such as the acceleration/
explosion of agile/remote work, digitalization
and hyper-connectedness, and ecommerce, to
and reaching into the future
name just a few, reach across our lives in ways
we’re still processing and adapting to. And yet,
the human need for connectedness continues
to assert itself in myriad ways. Almost a
“Forever Changes”
year ago, at the start of the previous Winter
Semester, I shared some reflections in
my weekly email “blog post” to academic
colleagues. Let’s take a quick look back at
January 2022:
“For those who have been teaching and
working throughout practically all of the
past two years, a new reality has asserted
itself. Maybe it’s hard to imagine the
“beforetime”, supplanted by the routines
we’ve grown accustomed to. And for the
many colleagues whose forays onto campus
have been in the single digits, or even not
at all, perhaps the physical presence of our
campuses has become almost hypothetical,
an abstraction.
“Anti-Fragile”
And yet, last Friday at Progress Campus as
I walked back to the parking lot, I saw two
students off to the side of the Library entrance
taking selfies with their phones. They were
positioning themselves in front of the
Centennial College sign, the one that’s affixed
to the north wall of the building. On that chilly
afternoon those two students were asserting
their embodied proof of attending college,
being a Centennial student, being “here”.
We’re all finding our way, collectively and
individually, through the fifth wave and a new
semester that will be filled with both new and
similar challenges to the preceding months.
It’s never going to be perfect and at times it
doubtless feels anything but. And still…the
moment I had of past meeting present and all
the miles in between, and the moment seeing
those two students—proudly proclaiming
their place in our community—were poignant
affirmations of place, “real” place, as well as
place in the heart.
Wrapping up this first week of the 2022 Winter
semester, I’m going to hold tight to the gift
those moments gave: of enduring friendships,
community, history, memory, and gratitude
in the face of whatever 2022 might throw at
us. It was a gift of perspective recognizing
this moment, this semester, as a point in
time through a long and storied journey that
preceded all of us and will continue to unfold
long after us.”
Fast forward to now. As we contemplate
and explore the many dimensions of “re/
TURN” in this issue of the Digest, and as
we’ve all engaged in a literal return to our five
campuses, let’s “hold tight” to those moments
of deep learning through a course of time that
will never be forgotten and to the “why” of what
we do as educators and academic leaders.
In his book Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic
World (which by the way I highly recommend!),
Fareed Zakaria writes: “What we can do is
be far more conscious of the risks we face,
prepare for the dangers, and equip our
societies to be resilient. They should not only
be able to withstand shocks and backlashes,
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