The Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL), under the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Qatar University (QU), concluded yesterday its 12th Excellence Day conference with the theme “Professional Development: Investment for Times of Crises.”
The two-day event, held virtually via the WebEx platform, brought together faculty members from across QU to share their thoughts and perspectives. A major focus was on detailing and disseminating the various methods that the QU faculty developed and implemented to ensure that they could continue to provide high-quality educational experiences as QU shifted its entire curriculum online. 
Dr Omar al-Ansari, vice president for academic affairs, opened the event and welcomed faculty members back for the spring semester. He thanked CETL director Dr Husam Aldamen and his team for organising the event and highlighted the fact that, because of its talented and dedicated faculty, the entire university was able to pivot to online teaching in one week and continue to educate its roughly 20,000 students throughout the pandemic.  
Dr al-Ansari also emphasised QU’s primary mission of promoting learning. In this context, he encouraged faculty members to think about “what will happen next” in education after the pandemic, and to plan for a “new normal” in teaching and learning that integrates both online and traditional teaching models to create “blended” modes of instruction in the post-pandemic era.
The event included an initial presentation entitled “Future of Education: The Pivotal Role of Professional Development” by Dr Aldamen and his colleague Dr Chris Stryker. They highlighted the critical importance of proactive professional development for educators in the post-pandemic world and explained how the CETL is poised to revolutionise and enhance professional development at Qatar University with the introduction of its new Education Excellence Programme and the university-wide rollout of “Digital Badge” micro-credentials for faculty participating in CETL professional development offerings.  The event also included a presentation entitled “What Covid-19 has done to Professional Development of Teachers in Higher Education?” by Dr Samer Gharib, an education developer at the University of Essex. Dr Samer provided a comprehensive overview of the changing landscape of professional development in higher education and current trends that have emerged in response to Covid-19.
The day culminated with six teaching-and-learning focused seminars presented by innovative Qatar University educators. The CETL Excellence Day programme continued for a second day and featured Arabic presentations exclusively. The 12th Excellence Day was attended live via videoconference by faculty members from across QU and will be posted on YouTube for educators the world over to view.