Doomscrolling, Zoom Overload, and COVID Fatigue: Teaching Creative Writing During the Pandemic

Doomscrolling, Zoom Overload, and COVID Fatigue: Teaching Creative Writing During the Pandemic

According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Group, the pandemic not only represents a global health crisis but a global learning crisis too. The UN reports that COVID has created 'the largest disruption of education systems in history' and as such, a top priority is 'preventing this learning crisis from becoming a generational catastrophe' (UNSDG 2). In other words, this disruption to education is 'far from over' (3).

At the time of writing, we find ourselves within a liminal historical moment, floating between what was and what might be. In our shared experience teaching Creative Writing during COVID, we observed common pedagogical challenges across undergraduate programmes at USQ, SCU, and QUT. Granted, some of the struggles outlined here predate the pandemic, since the sector was sick before the virus. However, the silent and invisible threat posed by COVID has aggravated already existing ills in a flailing system.