A Multi-Institutional Assessment of Changes in Higher Education Teaching and Learning in the Face of COVID-19
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-9-2021
Abstract
COVID-19 has had a profound influence on the conduct of teaching and learning in higher education. Almost everywhere a sudden shift occurred as educators transitioned courses from mainly face-to-face teaching and learning to emergency remote instruction; mostly conducted online. While details varied for individual faculty members; institutions; and countries; all confronted new challenges. We examine the immediate effects of COVID-19 on teaching and learning in higher education. Our results are based on a sample of 309 courses; and the academic staff who taught them; at eight colleges and universities varying in size and context across four continents. We document first how institutions; and their instructors; varied in their capacity for dealing with the rapidity of the COVID-19 teaching and learning pivot. We further demonstrate that the suddenness of the pandemic’s onset; and the quick response this demanded of instructors; meant that there was little systematic patterning in how academic staff were able to adapt – save for nimbleness. Rapidity of response meant differences were far more idiosyncratic than they were systematic; at least with respect to how individual faculty responded.
Recommended Citation
Bartolic, S. K., Boud, D., Agapito, J., Verpoorten, D., Williams, S., Lutze-Mann, L., Matzat, U., Moreno, M. M., Polly, P., Tai, J., Marsh, H. L., Lin, L., Burgess, J.-L., Habtu, S., Rodrigo, M. M. M., Roth, M., Heap, T., & Guppy, N. (2021). A multi-institutional assessment of changes in higher education teaching and learning in the face of COVID-19. Educational Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2021.1955830
