I was a Teaching Assistant within an online course and when the first wave of the pandemic hit, the lockdown was challenging on students. Many students had children at home with online learning, they were working from home and were isolated from family members who normally assist with their daily routines. The professor and I wished to remain socially present for the students and in turn wished for students to continue to engage. The professor and I brainstormed how we could continue effective practice during unprecedented times, we decided to:
1) Increase our office hours for student drop-ins to discuss questions of upcoming assignments
2) Create a Student Support Forum where we could offer resources such as short meditation videos
3) Posted uplifting quotes (i.e. below) and asked students to share their favourite quotes
We felt that these strategies were helpful and beneficial for the students. As I am a life long learner, to improve the experience, I think I would add for myself to do a 2-3min check in video and encourage students to do something similar.