Re-envisioning communication in post-COVID academia: Perspectives from US higher educational institutions on instruction, assessment, and research

Academic and professional communication in higher education, especially in the contexts of instruction, assessment, and research dramatically changed during the pandemic. These spoken registers that were primary conducted face-to-face and in real-time were transformed into technology-mediated, recorded and retrievable speech events. It was quite surprising that higher education in the United States (U.S.) successfully navigated communicative changes with relative ease (Francisco, 2021). Fully-online and hybrid instruction, virtual faculty meetings, and online assessment have allowed U.S. institutions to align relatively well with schedules and academic calendars, with only minor disruption. This presentation highlights documented successes and challenges in the U.S. that may lead to a re-envisioning of global communication in post-COVID academia.