Time for class COVID-19 edition: part 1: a national survey of faculty during COVID-19

This spring, higher education institutions engaged in a rapid and unprecedented movement to remote teaching and learning that exposed a new cohort of faculty with no prior experience teaching online to the use of digital learning tools and techniques. This transition occurred in the context of emergency remote teaching online versus the careful design and delivery of a course always intended to be delivered online. Typically, high-quality online courses are carefully developed over several months by a team, as opposed to this spring's rapid transition with varying levels of support. Yet,...  [+] Show more

This spring, higher education institutions engaged in a rapid and unprecedented movement to remote teaching and learning that exposed a new cohort of faculty with no prior experience teaching online to the use of digital learning tools and techniques. This transition occurred in the context of emergency remote teaching online versus the careful design and delivery of a course always intended to be delivered online. Typically, high-quality online courses are carefully developed over several months by a team, as opposed to this spring's rapid transition with varying levels of support. Yet, counter to the prevailing sentiment in the popular press, this transition left many faculty with a more positive perception of online learning. However, the shift also exposed major challenges, which include instructor and institutional readiness, consistency of experience, gaps in student access and readiness, and trust in institutions' ability to solve for these issues. Understanding these challenges and identifying ways to create solutions as we collectively move forward to plan for an uncertain fall is the focus of this summary report and others forthcoming in the series.

This publication is part one of a report on a survey of faculty of higher education institutions - 2-year and 4-year. It presents the first results from an ongoing series of surveys and focus groups with faculty designed to understand the ongoing impact of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic on teaching and learning in higher education. This report is being co-released with a companion report from Digital Promise about the student experience, 'Suddenly online: a national survey of undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic' [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 142.654].

Edited excerpts from publication.