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The Faculty

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The Faculty

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4 min readSep 7, 2020

Hi friends,

your editor Maria Angel Ferrero, here.

Summer break (if we can call it a break) is over and the fall semester has started. Most of us are just trying to keep up with the new normal.

Some of us are completely online, others are back in their classrooms, and many trying to hold a hybrid version of our courses, just in case. What is your situation?

Whatever your scenario is, there is something I think we all have in common: this is challenging!

Teaching in person while wearing masks, teaching online, and engaging students, whatever it is, we are all facing an unprecedented situation.

And students, faculty, and staff are hurting.

This week we are looking at strategies and tips to make online and hybrid classes more engaging amid the prevailing covid-19 outbreak, while helping students, faculty, and administrators to cope with the emotional distress of this fall semester. If you want to share your story, please join us.

I am sincerely grateful for all the writers who are joining the conversation and have shared with us their most personal stories, inviting us to lead the change and do better. Join the conversation here and tell us how are you doing to cope with stress and uncertainty this fall.

Meanwhile, here’s the best of The Faculty stories for you.

❤️ Editor’s Picks

Finding Meaning in Your Ph.D. Struggles by Saikanth Dacha

There are certainly many systemic problems at various levels that need to be addressed in order to make graduate school a little easier on students’ mental health, perhaps especially in 2020. Even as we push to solve these issues, in my experience, I still have had to develop a perspective on my own Ph.D. life in order to be able to better deal with the challenges that it brought, regardless of whether these challenges were in or out of my control.

👩🏻‍🏫Online Learning

5 Ways to Improve Students’ Engagement in Online Classes by Maria Angel Ferrero

Teaching online need not be painful, even if we didn’t grow as digital natives. Here are some simple and straightforward ideas to make your online courses more engaging and meaningful.

What to expect from Hybrid Teaching in 2020 and beyond by ProfManagement

Whilst there are a variety of educational and teaching channels — such as the Open University — that are ‘digital first’ and have their own pros and cons, hybrid teaching needs further investigation to be fully understood.

Instructional Design and The Digital Transformation of Education by Luis Alvarado

Higher education is pivoting to fully online, and corporations are trying to engage their employees via digital courses. At the forefront of all these changes is a group of individuals who combine the research of learning with the appropriate technology.

Harness the Power of Stories for Great eLearning Design by Sara Pehrsson

If you work in learning design, you’ve no doubt heard of the value of storytelling for engaging your audience and creating a memorable learning experience. If you’ve tried implementing stories in your courses, you’ve also discovered that it’s not all that easy to do well.

15 Free Digital Tools to Boost Students’ Engagement Online by Maria Angel Ferrero

While engaging students online can be more challenging, the learning experience can be as good or even better than in the traditional physical classroom. This post will tell you everything you need to know about from the best online tools and resources for engaging students online.