When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (The American Journal of Managed Care, 2021), institutions globally were required to transition their services from in-person teaching and learning modalities to distance and online digital platforms. The University of Ottawa, like many other post-secondary institutions, experienced unprecedented difficulties as the rapid transition did not allow for the option to plan. Thus, faculty members and students had to quickly conform to the new reality without any training or preparation. They were forced to transform the instructional and learning approaches they were accustomed to. The pandemic drastically changed education systems and learning activities. It was important to understand this transformation and to reflect on teaching and learning. As such, the University of Ottawa, as part of an institutional Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Connection Grant, proposed a series of three symposia to gain a deeper understanding of future educational directions as a result of the effects of the pandemic in reshaping education. This initiative focused on gaining an understanding of the next steps toward adjusting to the new normal and strategies to effectively design and facilitate learning in distance and online modalities. These symposia were named the Virtual Symposium Series.

The aim of the Virtual Symposium Series was to address the following five key objectives: 1) To scaffold instructors in both reflection and dialogue regarding the transition of instructional practices to distance and online learning modalities, in support of the reintegration of renewed pedagogical perspectives and practices; 2) To harness this period of reflection and questioning in order to rethink the teaching and learning paradigm, in particular the notion of student engagement across a variety of instructional modalities; 3) To cross-pollinate and exchange instructional and assessment ideas and practices across disciplinary boundaries; 4) To foster opportunities to undertake and showcase action research examining instructional and learning experiences in distance and online modalities; and 5) To contribute to current research regarding the evolution of attitudes toward, and implementation of distance and online pedagogies. Attendees included instructors, graduate student teaching assistants, support staff from teaching and learning and student support services and scholars engaged in action research related to pedagogical practices and distance and online learning.

The Virtual Symposium Series was spread across the 2020-2021 academic year from November 2020 to May 2021 and was led by the Office of the Vice-Provost Academic Affairs and the Teaching and Learning Support Service at the University of Ottawa. It was supported by the Student Academic Support Services, the university’s Information Technology service, the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, the members of the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ASoTL) research unit, and with the help of Desire2Learn for the co-creation of a dedicated virtual symposium platform. Each event included six sessions and featured keynote speakers, panelists and other attendees who all engaged in several discussions regarding teaching and learning.

The Rise of the Collective Writing Project

After the conclusion of the Virtual Symposium Series, the members of the ASoTL research unit developed this publication initiative seeking to document the reflections and discussions of the events with a follow-up collective writing project. This paper documents the lived experiences of those involved in the post-secondary pedagogical transition resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic to maintain the momentum of what faculty members have learned during this time. This collective writing project encapsulates the following three areas of transformation that have been explored across the Symposium Series: 1) Confronting the challenges of the distance/online instructional modality; 2) Taking stock of the changes in thinking about, and practice of, distance/online instruction and learning; and 3) Considering how experiences will shape our practice as we look to the future of teaching and learning.

This paper is divided into three distinct thematic chapters dedicated to each of the three areas of transformation. Each chapter features a summary of each symposium area, a video clip of the keynote presenters, themes that emerged from each symposium, followed by written contributions from participants. These written contributions to each of the three sections consist of short reflections in response to one or more of the guiding questions associated with a thematic chapter or area of transformation. Table 1 outlines the guiding questions that were asked of participants for each transformation area.

Table 1

Guiding Questions