The Covid-19 pandemic has affected human lives in all fields worldwide. Higher education, as an essential sector, makes no exception. It has been severely impacted and disrupted due to the lockdown. This fact drives institutions and universities to look for solutions. Most institutions globally search for new teaching methodologies to replace face-to-face teaching and learning. Most governments have switched to virtual learning and teaching, mainly in higher education, although many constraints face implementing virtual learning. Virtual learning remains the only refuge for institutions and universities without any solution to end the pandemic. In developed countries, technology has taken the lion’s share in education. For this reason, these countries did not find difficulties in the shift. However, the sudden shift from face-to-face to online learning has affected education since institutions and universities left the need to understand online teaching methodologies, their use and effectiveness, and strategies that can help shift from face-to-face to online learning. Hence, there is a need to explore the teaching and learning situation during the pandemic, evaluation of the teaching approaches, testing and assessment methodologies, teachers’ perspectives, and students’ attitudes toward the sudden shift to e-learning.
The lockdown of universities places teachers’ and students’ abilities under the lens. Teachers and students have confronted a new situation where they must use digital tools to carry on teaching and learning and find new approaches. However, not all teachers and students are digitally fluent or have a command of high-order digital skills. Indeed, most noticeable research papers explored the effectiveness of e-learning or described their journey in the e-learning field. Few cases tackled issues related to the pitfalls and constraints facing teachers and students during the quick shift. Most teachers did not give considerable attention to their e-journey and what pitfalls they should avoid to improve the quality of the e-content.
During the pandemic's dicey period, students with poor digital skills tend to search for other e-solutions to contact their teachers. Most of them found social media tools as their last refuge. Advances in Social Networking Sites and mobile applications give birth to a new digital community that favors informal settings in learning. The leading tools were Facebook and YouTube. Even though some instructors are non-digitally fluent or have technophobia towards using tech tools, they collaborated and produced e-content that can save the situation. Most instructors tend to access both formal settings (Moodle/Teams/Blackboard) and informal settings (Facebook, YouTube, Google Meet, and Zoom applications). Although teachers and students were non-digitally fluent, they cooperated and appeared digitally literate.
Universities and institutions start turning their attention toward what education may look like in the Post-COVID era. For some instructors, an immediate retreat to face-to-face learning is required, while others see that the sudden shift towards online learning represents a moment of change and a time to rethink education and how it could be delivered. Hence, the ultimate aim of this event is to uncover the potentials and challenges that teachers and students may face in the post-covid era. It also endeavors to highlight “rethinking education in the post-pandemic era”.
This call invites experts, instructors, and researchers to participate in Teaching and Learning in Post-Covid: Reality and Expectations, which will take place virtually at the University of Saida, Dr. Moulay Tahar, Algeria, on December 12/13, 2023. This conference provides a space for researchers to exchange their expertise, knowledge, and best experiences to find new teaching methodologies that can be used during the post-pandemic era.
We cordially invite experts, instructors, and researchers in English Language Teaching to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words. We particularly welcome contributions on the following tracks (but not limited to):