Rethinking university pedagogy: Challenges and opportunities for curriculum transformation in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, and the subsequent move to online teaching and learning for contact institutions of higher learning, pedagogies that were on the periphery have now taken a central position. Such a transition has brought a paradigm shift on how universities will function in a VUCA world. There is a need to rethink how the curriculum prepares graduates to be relevant for the 21st century workplace. In this study, the author sets out to explore the challenges and opportunities of rethinking university pedagogy for curriculum transformation post COVID-19. The findings of this study confirm that the transition to online, despite the difficulties of implementation, awakened in students some of the 21st century skills related to living in the world, tools for working and ways of thinking. Noteworthy is that students value their learnings from both the physical and virtual social learning spaces. It is, therefore, necessary to rethink curriculum design and pedagogical practices to ensure that a binary between online and traditional contact classes does not occur.