Exploring university teachers’ online education during COVID-19: Tensions between enthusiasm and stress
Abstract
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the world radically shifted to emergency remote teaching. Since then, many universities have moved forward considerably and many lessons were learned in the area of online education. The aim of this qualitative study is to investigate how university teachers in a Belgian university experienced online education since the start of the pandemic and what exactly influences their experiences with online education. Six online focus groups (with thirty-two lecturers) revealed both enthusiasm and stress, and six tension fields that influenced their experiences with online education during COVID-19: (1) connection with students, (2) connection with colleagues, (3) digital opportunities and threats for students’ learning processes (online student feedback, online interaction, structured learning materials, flexibility in time and space), (4) changing teacher roles, (5) tension due to time pressure and (6) support issues. Every tension field contains both opportunities and threats for online education, which can inform practitioners of online education in the future of university education. Furthermore, resulting from the tension fields, university teachers voiced what they want to preserve or discard towards a more blended future. Participants shared a belief towards a blended future, preserving online feedback, online interaction, flexibility in time and space, transparantly structured online learning materials, and skilled faculty sparring partners as support. Participants expressed discarding stress due to technical problems, always being available online, online and blended education without a practical vision, and an impersonal online ICT ticketing system.
Highlights
- Digital opportunities to enhance students’ learning invoke positive feelings.
- Technical aspects, an impersonal ICT helpdesk system, and lack of time cause stress.
- Student feedback, interaction, structured learning materials, and flexibility are assets.
- Collaboration with direct colleagues is valued for reflection on practice.
- Students experience difficulties distinguishing main from side issues in online learning materials.
Keywords
Distance education and online learning, Higher education, Teacher professional development, Teaching/learning strategies